WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 


Women  and  War  Work 


HELEN  ERASER 


No  easy  hopes  or  list 
Shall  lead  us  to  our  goal ; 
But  iron  sacrifice 
Of  Body,  Will,  and  Soul 
There  is  but  one  task  for  all 
For  each  one  life  to  give, 
Who  stands  if  Freedom  fall 

Rudyard  Kipling  in  "For  All  We  Have  and  Art. 


/ERE.  PtKLNN!|'JS__jJJ 


1918 

G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 

NEW  YORK 


COPYRIGHT  1918 
BY  G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 


COPYRIGHT  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 
AND  THE  COLONIES 


DEDICATED 

TO 
MOTHER, 

ANNE, 
AND  THE  BOYS. 


First  Edition,  January,  1918 
Second  Edition,  February,  1918 


CONTENTS 

Chapter  Page 

1.  THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  .  „ 19 

2.  ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS 35 

3.  HOSPITALS— RED  CROSS— V.  A.  D 53 

4.  BRINGING  BLIGHTY  TO  THE  SOLDIERS — HUTS, 

COMFORTS,  ETC 73 

5.  WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER 91 

6.  WOMEN  AND  MUNITIONS 109 

7.  THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY.  . .  131 

8.  "THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY" 155 

9.  WAR  SAVINGS — THE  MONEY  BEHIND  THE  GUNS  171 

10.  FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION 195 

11.  THE  W.A.A.Cs  215 

12.  WAR  AND  MORALS 235 

13.  WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  . . .  259 

14.  RECONSTRUCTION  .  287 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  FEW  SHELLS Frontispiece 

Miss  EDITH  CAVELL  22 

DR.  ELSIE  INGLIS 22 

FIRST  AMBULANCE  ON  DUTY  IN  THE  FIRST  ZEP- 
PELIN RAID  56 

"SOMEWHERE  IN  FRANCE" 64 

CLEANING  A  LOCOMOTIVE 94 

WOMEN  AS  CARRIAGE  CLEANERS 94 

WINDOW  CLEANERS 102 

STEAM  ROLLER  DRIVER 102 

TRAINING  WOMEN  AS  AEROPLANE  BUILDERS 112 

RlVETTING  ON  BOILERS 116 

FACING  BOILER  BLUE  FLANGES 116 

ROUGH  TURNING  JACKET  FORGING  OF  6-pouNDER 

HOTCHKISS  GUN  124 

How  TO  DRESS  FOR  MUNITION  MAKING 136 

BACK  TO  THE  LAND 162 

WOMEN  TACKLE  A  STRONG  MAN'S  PROBLEM 162 

Six  REASONS  WHY  You  SHOULD  BUY  WAR  SAV- 
INGS CERTIFICATES 174 

"FOR  YOUR  CHILDREN"  184 

BOOK  MARKS  ISSUED  BY  THE  N.  W.  S.  C . . .  .  191,  192 

W.  A.  A.  Cs.  ON  THE  MARCH 216 

WOMEN  OF  THE  RESERVE  AMBULANCE 216 

POLICE  WOMEN  ,  .  246 


FOREWORD 

UE  War  Loan  from  England"— That  is 
the  heading  under  which  were  grouped 
the  nine  lectures  given  by  Miss  Helen 
Fraser  at  Vassar  College.  England  has  bor- 
rowed a  billion  or  so  of  dollars  from  us,  but  the 
obligation  is  not  all  her  way.  The  moral 
strength  of  our  cause  is  immeasurably  increased 
by  her  alliance,  and  the  spectacle  of  a  great 
democracy  organizing  itself  for  complete  unity 
in  a  world  crisis  is  worth  an  incalculable  amount 
to  us.  Such  a  vision  Miss  Fraser  has  brought 
to  her  wider  public  among  the  women  of 
America  in  this  notable  book.  Of  her  personal 
influence  let  me  quote  again  from  the  Vassar 
students'  newspaper : 

"Miss  Fraser,  here's  to  you!  We  don't  need 
to  say  that  we  liked  Miss  Fraser  and  everything 
she  had  to  tell  us.  The  way  we  followed  her 
around,  and  packed  every  room  in  which  she 
spoke,  out  to  the  doors  and  sometimes  up  to  the 
ceiling,  is  proof  enough  of  that.  And  even  the 


FOREWORD 

fact  that  it  was  Sunday  could  not  check  our  out- 
burst of  song  in  the  Soap  Palace  as  Miss  Eraser 
departed.  Her  gracious  speech  of  appreciation 
left  with  us  the  question  not  phrased  by  her 
before,  but  certainly  in  the  minds  of  every  one 
of  us  who  had  been  hearing  her :  'What  are  we 
going  to  do?'" 

An  unsolicited  testimonial,  this,  of  the  most 
genuine  kind.  The  College  students  of  today 
are  not  easily  coaxed  into  lecture  rooms  outside 
of  their  own  classes. 

I  believe  that  Miss  Fraser's  book  will  be  read 
with  the  same  eager  attention  that  followed  her 
first  speeches  in  this  country  as  she  began  her 
work  of  educating  American  women  to  a  sense 
of  what  the  mobilization  of  the  entire  citizen 
army  of  a  democracy  must  mean. 

Nor  will  her  influence  cease  there.  Miss 
Eraser's  book  is  a  piece  of  history;  and  history 
is  action.  The  wonderful  work  of  the  women  of 
England  is  already  emulated  by  the  splendid 
efforts  along  many  lines  of  the  women  in  our 
country.  The  new  lessons  of  co-operation  and  of 


FOREWORD 

selfless  devotion,  learned  from  this  book  will, 
I  confidently  predict,  within  a  few  months,  be 
translated  into  action  by  the  Women's  War  Ser- 
vice Committees  in  every  state  of  our  land. 

And  the  greatest  lesson  of  all  is  that  women 
and  men  must  work  together  in  this  new  world. 
I  count  it  an  honour — being  a  man — to  be  asked 
to  introduce  Miss  Fraser  in  this  way  to  the 
American  public.  For  my  part  I  would  have 
no  separate  women's  division,  except  such  as 
concerns  the  tasks  exclusively  for  women.  I 
would  have  women  side  by  side  with  men  in 
every  division  of  labour,  working  out  the  task 
with  equal  fidelity,  equal  authority,  and  equal 
rewards.  One  of  the  results  of  this  amazing  age 
is  going  to  be  the  new  comprehension,  under- 
standing, and  sympathy  of  the  one  sex  for  the 
other. 


H.  N.  MACCRACKEN. 


Vassar  College, 
Poughkeepsie,  New  York. 
January  11,  1918. 


THE  women  of  all  the  allies  are  one  in  this 
great  struggle.  Our  hopes  and  our  fears, 
our  anxieties  and  our  prayers,  our  visions 
and  our  desolations,  are  the  same. 

Our  work  is  the  same  task  of  supporting  and 
sustaining  the  energies  of  our  men  in  arms  and 
of  our  nations  at  home.  All  the  allied  women 
know  more  of  each  other  than  they  ever  did 
before,  and  this  is  all  to  the  good. 

The  task  of  women  in  this  struggle  and  in  the 
reconstruction  to  come  after,  are  great  tasks,  and 
the  world  needs  in  every  country  not  only  the 
wisdom  and  knowledge  of  its  own  women  but 
the  strength  in  them  that  comes  from  being  one 
of  a  great  world-wide  group  and  conscious  of  the 
unity  of  all  women. 

Anything  that  can  help  to  that  unity  and  un- 
derstanding seems  to  me  of  great  value,  and  this 
record  is  written  for  American  women  in  the 
hope  it  may  be  of  some  small  service. 

December  25,  1917.  H.  F. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN 

"I  have  no  fear  nor  shrinking.  I  have  seen 
death  so  often  that  it  is  not  strange  or  fearful 
to  me.  ...  I  thank  God  for  this  ten  weeks' 
quiet  before  the  end.  Life  has  always  been  hur- 
ried and  full  of  difficulty.  This  time  of  rest  has 
been  a  great  mercy.  They  have  all  been  very 
kind  to  me  here.  But  this  I  would  say,  standing 
as  I  do  in  view  of  God  and  eternity,  I  realise  that 
patriotism  is  not  enough.  I  must  have  no  hatred 
or  bitterness  towards  anyone. " 

—EDITH  CAVELL'S  last  message. 


CHAPTER  I 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN 

TO  WOMEN 

Your  hearts  are  lifted  up,  your  hearts 
That  have  foreknown  the  utter  price, 

Your  hearts  burn  upward  like  a  flame 
Of  splendour  and  of  sacrifice. 

For  you  too,  to  battle  go, 

Not  with  the  marching  drums  and  cheers, 
But  in  the  watch  of  solitude 

And  through  the  boundless  night  of  fears. 

And  not  a  shot  comes  blind  with  death, 
And  not  a  stab  of  steel  is  pressed 

Home,  but  invisibly  it  tore, 
And  entered  first  a  woman's  breast. 

From  LAWRENCE  BINYON'S  "For  the  Fallen." 

THE  spirit  of  women  in  this  greatest  of 
world  struggles  cannot,  in  its  essence,  be 
differentiated  from  the  spirit  of  men.  They 
are  one.     The  women  of  our  countries  in  the 
mass  feel  about  the  issues  of  this  struggle  just 
as  the  men  do;  know,  as  they  do,  why  we  fight, 
and  like  them,  are  going  on  to  the  end.     The 
declarations  of  our  Government  as  to  conditions 
for  peace  are  ours,  too,  and  when  we  vote,  we 
shall  show  the  spirit  of  women  is  clearly  and 


20  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

definitely  on  the  side  of  freedom,  justice  and 
democracy. 

Our  actions  speak  louder  than  any  words  can 
ever  do,  and  the  record  of  our  women's  sacri- 
fices and  work  stand  as  great  silent  witnesses  to 
our  spirit.  There  is  nothing  we  have  been  asked 
to  do  that  we  have  not  done  and  we  have  initiated 
great  pieces  of  work  ourselves.  The  hardest  time 
was  in  the  beginning  when  we  waited  for  our 
tasks,  feeling  as  if  we  beat  stone  walls,  reading 
our  casualty  lists,  receiving  our  wounded,  car- 
ing for  the  refugees,  doing  everything  we  could 
for  the  sailor  and  soldier  and  his  dependants, 
helping  the  women  out  of  work,  but  feeling  there 
was  so  much  more  to  do  behind  the  men — so  very 
much  more — for  which  we  had  to  wait.  We  did 
all  the  other  things  faithfully  and,  so  far  as  we 
could,  prepared  ourselves  and  when  the  tasks 
came,  we  volunteered  in  tens  of  thousands,  every 
kind  of  woman,  young,  old,  middle-aged,  rich  and 
poor,  trained  and  untrained,  and  today  we  have 
1,250,000  women  in  industry  directly  replacing 
men,  1,000,000  in  munitions,  83,000  additional 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  21 

women  in  Government  Departments,  258,300 
whole  and  part-time  women  workers  on  the  land. 
We  are  recruiting  women  for  the  Women's  Army 
Auxiliary  Corps  at  the  rate  of  10,000  a  month 
and  we  have  initiated  a  Women's  Koyal  Naval 
Service.  We  have  had  the  help  of  about  60,000 
V.  A.  D.'s  (Voluntary  Aid  Detachment  of  Bed 
Cross)  in  Hospitals  in  England  and  France,  and 
on  our  other  fronts,  in  addition  to  our  thousands 
of  trained  nurses. 

The  women  in  our  homes  carry  on — no  easy 
task  in  these  days  of  shortages  in  food  and  coal 
and  all  the  other  difficulties,  saving,  conserving, 
working,  caring  for  the  children,  with  so  many 
babies  whose  fathers  have  never  seen  them, 
though  they  are  one  to  two  years  old,  and  so 
many  babies  who  will  never  see  their  fathers. 

Some  of  our  women  have  died  on  active  ser- 
vice, doctors,  nurses  and  orderlies.  Our  most 
recent  and  greatest  loss  is  in  the  death  of  Dr. 
Elsie  Inglis,  the  initiator  of  the  Scottish  Women's 
Hospitals,  who  died  on  November  26th,  three 
days  after  she  had  safely  brought  back  her  Unit 


22  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

from  South  Russia,  which  had  been  nursing  the 
Serbians  attached  to  the  Russian  army. 

One  who  was  with  her  at  the  end  writes,  "It 
was  a  great  triumphant  going  forth."  There  was 
no  hesitation,  no  fear.  As  soon  as  she  knew  she 
was  going,  that  the  call  had  come,  with  her 
wonted  decision  of  character,  she  just  readjusted 
her  whole  outlook.  "For  a  long  time  I  meant  to 
live,"  she  said,  "but  now  I  know  I  am  going.  It 
is  so  nice  to  think  of  beginning  a  new  job  over 
there !  But  I  would  have  liked  to  have  finished 
one  or  two  jobs  here  first !" 

She  told  us  the  story  of  the  breaking  of  their 
moorings  as  they  lay  in  the  river  in  a  great  storm 
of  wind  and  of  how  that  breaking  had  saved  them 
from  colliding  with  another  ship.  "I  asked,"  she 
said,  "what  had  happened."  Someone  said  "Our 
moorings  broke."  I  said,  "No,  a  hand  cut  them !" 
Then,  after  a  moment's  silence,  with  an  expres- 
sion in  face  and  voice  which  it  is  utterly  impos- 
sible to  convey,  she  added,  "That  same  Hand  is 
cutting  my  moorings  now,  and  I  am  going  forth !" 
The  picture  rose  before  you  of  an  unfettered  ship 


Miss  EDITH  CAVELL 


DR.  ELSIE  INGLIS 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  23 

going  out  to  the  wide  sea  and  of  the  great  un- 
trammelled, unhindered  soul  moving  majestically 
onwards. 

There  was  no  fear,  no  death!  How  could 
there  be.  She  never  thought  of  her  own  work — 
she  knew  unity.  "You  did  magnificently,"  was 
said  to  her  within  an  hour  of  her  going.  With 
all  her  wonted  assurance  and  with  a  touch  of 
pride  she  answered,  "My  Unit  did  magnifi- 
cently." 

Her  loss  is  irreparable  to  us,  but  there  is  no 
room  for  sorrow.  She  leaves  us  triumph,  victory, 
and  peace. 

Edith  Cavell's  name  is  another  that  shines 
upon  our  roll  of  honour — the  same  serene  great 
spirit — no  thought  of  self,  but  only  a  great  love 
and  desire  to  serve — and  a  great  fearlessness. 
Her  message,  before  she  went  out  alone  at  dawn 
to  her  death,  which  added  another  stain  to  the 
enemy's  pages  dark  with  blood,  was  the  message 
of  one  who  saw  the  eternal  verities,  the  things 
worth  living  and  dying  for. 


24  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Our  men's  Roll  of  Honor  is  a  heavy  Boll.  We 
have  lost  in  killed  and  permanently  out  of  the 
army,  a  million  men  and  over  75  per  cent  of  our 
casualties  are  our  own  Island  losses.  Our  women 
in  every  village  and  in  every  city  street  have  lost 
husbands,  fathers,  brothers,  lovers  and  friends. 
From  every  rank  of  life  our  men  have  died,  the 
agricultural  labourer,  the  city  clerk,  the  railway 
man,  the  miner,  the  engineer,  the  business  man, 
the  poet,  the  journalist,  the  author,  the  artist,  the 
scientist,  the  heirs  of  great  names,  many  of  the 
most  brilliant  of  our  young  men.  We  comb  out 
our  mines  and  shipyards,  and  factories,  cease- 
lessly for  more  men.  Our  boys  at  eighteen  go 
into  the  army.  From  eighteen  to  forty-one  every 
man  is  liable  for  service.  Our  Universities  have 
only  a  handful  of  men  in  them  and  these  are  the 
disabled,  the  unfit,  and  men  from  other  countries. 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  Colleges  are  full  of 
Officers'  Training  Corps  men.  The  Examina- 
tion Schools  and  the  Town  Hall  at  Oxford  are 
Hospitals,  and  Oxford  and  Cambridge  streets 
are  full  of  the  blue-clad  wounded,  as  are  so  many 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  25 

of  our  cities.  We  are  a  nation  at  war,  and  at 
war  for  over  three  years  and  everywhere  and  in 
everything  we  are  changed. 

In  these  years  we  women  have  lived  always 
with  the  shadow  of  the  war  over  us — it  never 
leaves  us,  night  or  day.  We  do  not  live  com- 
pletely where  we  are  in  these  days.  A  bit  of  us 
is  always  with  our  men  on  our  many  fields  of 
war.  We  live  partly  in  France  and  Flanders,  in 
Italy,  in  the  Balkans,  in  Egypt  and  Palestine  and 
Mesopotamia,  in  Africa,  with  the  lonely  white 
crosses  in  Gallipoli,  with  our  men  who  guard  us 
sleeping  and  waking,  going  down  to  the  sea  in 
ships  and  under  the  sea,  fighting  death  in  sub- 
marines and  mines,  and  with  those  who  in  the 
air  are  the  eyes  and  the  winged  cavalry  of  our 
forces. 

We  mourn  our  dead,  not  sadly  and  hopelessly, 
though  life  for  many  of  us  is  emptier  forever, 
and  for  many  so  much  harder,  and  we  wear  very 
little  mourning.  We  mourn  silently,  and  with  a 
sure  faith  that  our  men's  supreme  sacrifice  is  not 
in  vain.  "Greater  love  hath  no  man  than  this, 


26  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

that  he  lay  down  his  life  for  his  friend."  The 
little  white  crosses  of  our  graves  symbolize  the 
faith  for  which  they  die. 

The  message  of  our  soldier  poets  who  have  been 
created  by  this  war  and  have  written  immortal 
verse,  and  many  of  whom  have  died,  is  the  mes- 
sage of  men  who  have  seen  through  the  veils  of 
time  into  eternity,  who  are  free  of  life  and  death, 
whom  nothing  can  hurt,  "if  it  be  not  the  Destined 
Will." 

The  veils  of  time  grow  thin  in  these  days  to 
those  of  us  who  take  Death  into  our  reckoning 
all  the  time.  We  think  of  our  men  gone  on  ahead 
as  eternally  young. 

"Solemn  the  drums  thrill;  Death  august  and  royal 

Sings  sorrow  up  into  immortal  spheres. 
There  is  music  in  the  midst  of  desolation 
And  a  glory  that  shines  before  our  tears. 
***** 

They  shall  not  grow  old,  as  we  that  are  left  grow  old 
Age  shall  not  weary  them,  nor  the  years  condemn. 

At  the  going  down  of  the  Sun  and  in  the  morning 
We  will  remember  them." 

We  know,  too,  though  we  do  not  often  define  it, 
that  the  forces  we  women  fight  in  the  enemy  are 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  27 

the  forces  that  have  left  women  out  in  world 
affairs. 

Germany  is  the  Fatherland,  never,  it  is  sig- 
nificant, the  Motherland  as  our  little  Islands 
are,  and  its  mad  dream  of  militarism  and  Welt- 
macht  is  the  dream  of  men  who  deny  any  con- 
structive part  to  women  in  the  great  affairs  of 
life.  The  hopes  of  all  the  democracies  are  bound 
up  in  this  struggle  and  its  issue,  and  there  is  no 
real  place  in  the  world  for  the  true  service  and 
genius  and  work  of  women,  any  more  than  for 
that  of  the  mass  of  men,  save  in  democracy. 
We  mean  so  much  in  these  days  by  democracy. 
It  seems  to  be  indefinable  in  its  larger  meanings. 
It  is  not  a  system  of  government,  but,  on  the 
other  hand,  no  country  can  be  called  democratic 
that  has  not  established  political  freedom,  and 
no  country  is  truly  democratic  in  which  such 
freedom  is  only  in  name,  and  its  women  are  not 
included  or  a  group  rule  or  the  demagogue  and 
the  worst  kind  of  politician  hold  sway. 

Democracy  is  not  here  till  all  serve  and  all  are 
given  opportunities  so  that  they  have  something 


28  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

of  value  to  give  to  their  country  and  to  the  world. 
Democracy  is  the  ever  changing,  ever  developing, 
ever  creative  spirit  of  man  expressing  itself  in 
his  institutions  and  systems  of  government  and 
relationships. 

Its  quarrel  with  our  enemies,  who  would  im- 
pose on  the  mass  of  men  cast-iron  systems,  and 
would  set  up  state  idols  to  be  worshipped  as 
higher  than  the  Conscience  and  spirit  of  man,  is 
so  profound  and  goes  so  deeply  into  knowledge 
and  feelings  that  are  too  big  for  words,  that  the 
soldier  who  never  tries  to  express  it  but  goes  out 
and  drills  and  works  and  disciplines  himself 
that  he  may  present  his  body  as  a  living  shield 
for  the  faith  that  is  within  him,  and  the  woman 
who  works  with  him  and  behind  him,  healing 
and  giving,  silently,  are  perhaps  wisest  of  all. 

It  is  no  time  for  words  only,  though  right 
words  are  mighty  powers,  but  for  living  faith  in 
deeds  and  the  spirit  of  the  women  of  all  our  al- 
lied countries  is  swift  to  answer  the  challenge- 
by  their  works  shall  ye  know  them. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  29 

The  spirit  of  our  women  shows,  like  that  of  the 
French  women  who  tend  their  farms,  keep  their 
shops,  work  ceaselessly  everywhere,  most  clearly 
and  wonderfully  in  their  work.  In  our  hundreds 
of  hospitals  night  and  day,  they  care  for  the 
wounded  and  the  sick  and  the  dying,  bringing 
consolation,  love,  skill,  heroism,  patience  and  all 
fine  things  as  their  gift.  From  myriads  of  homes 
they  pour  forth  to  their  daily  toil,  carrying  on 
the  work  of  the  country,  educating  the  children, 
taking  the  place  of  their  men  on  the  railways,  the 
factory,  the  workshop,  the  banks  and  offices.  In 
the  munition  works,  in  the  shipyards,  in  the 
engineering  shops,  in  the  aeroplane  sheds,  they 
work  in  tens  of  thousands — risking  life  and 
health  in  some  cases,  but  thinking  little  of  it, 
compared  with  what  their  men  are  doing,  knee- 
deep  in  snow  and  mud  and  water  in  the  trenches. 
"Is  the  work  heavy?"  you  ask.  "Not  so  heavy  as 
the  soldiers'."  "Are  the  hours  long?"  "Six  days 
and  nights  in  the  trenches  are  longer."  "We  are 
going  to  win  and  you  are  going  to  help  us"— 
and  the  munition  girl  and  the  land  girl  and  the 


30  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

workers  answer  not  only  with  cheers  and  words 
but  answer  with  shells  and  ships  and  aeroplanes 
and  submarines  and  food  produced  and  con- 
served, and  in  industrial  tasks  done  by  men  and 
women  together. 

The  enemy  airships  and  aeroplanes  bomb  our 
cities  but  our  girls  "carry  on" — no  telephone  girl 
has  left  her  post — there  have  been  no  panics  in 
our  workshops. 

And  the  spirit  of  the  Waac — the  khaki  girl- 
is  the  spirit  of  her  brother. 

On  one  occasion  in  France  in  an  air  raid, 
enemy  bombs  came  very  near  some  girl  signallers. 
They  behaved  splendidly  and  someone  suggested 
it  should  be  mentioned  in  the  Orders  of  the  Day. 
"No,"  said  the  Commanding  Officer,  "we  don't 
mention  soldiers  in  orders  for  doing  their  duty," 
— and  that  tribute  to  their  attitude  is  deserved 
and  the  right  one. 

,  like  our  men,  we  carry  on  cheerfully, 
knowing  there  is  only  one  possible  end,  victory. 
We  fight  for  the  sanctity  of  the  given  word,  for 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  WOMEN  31 

honour,  for  the  rights  of  individuals  and  nations, 
for  the  ideals  that  have  preserved  humanity  from 
barbarism,  for  the  right  of  service,  for  the  salva- 
tion of  common  humanity. 

More,  we  women  work  with  a  feeling  in  our 
hearts  that  we,  who  bear  and  cherish  life,  and  to 
whom  its  destruction  is  most  terrible,  have  a 
great  work  to  do  and  a  great  part  to  play  in  the 
settlement  of  the  problem  of  war  in  the  future. 

The  transmutation  of  the  struggles  of  man- 
kind from  the  physical  to  the  spiritual,  the  solu- 
tion of  national  and  international  problems,  the 
solution  of  all  the  riddles  of  life  that  demand  an 
answer  or  man's  conquest,  cannot  be  done  by 
man  alone.  It  is  our  task  also  and  to  the  great 
work  of  building  up  a  new  world  after  we 
emerge  from  this  crucible  of  fire  in  which  the 
souls  of  the  nations  are  being  tested,  the  spirit 
of  women  has  much  to  bring. 


ORGANIZATION   AND   ITS 
PITFALLS 


"The  more  they  gazed,  the  more  their  wonder 
grew 

That  one  small  head  could  carry  all  she  knew." 


CHAPTER   II 

ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS 

THERE  are  people  who  declare  that  the 
winning  of  this  war  depends  on  organiza- 
tion alone.   That  is  palpably  untrue.  Good 
organization  can  do  much.    The  greatest  thing  in 
all  organizations  is  the  living  flame  that  makes 
grouping  real — the  selfless  spirit  of  service  that 
the  fighting  man  possesses  and  that  is  beyond  all 
words  of  praise. 

Talk  to  a  soldier  or  a  sailor,  realize  how  he 
thinks  and  feels  about  his  ship,  his  battalion,  his 
aircorps.  He  is  subordinated — selfless — disci- 
plined. The  secret  of  the  good  soldiers'  achieve- 
ments and  his  greatness  is  selfless  service  and  in 
our  national  organizations  behind  him  that  same 
spirit  is  the  one  great  thing  that  counts. 

If  you  have  that  as  a  foundation  among  your 
workers,  organization  is  easy. 

We  found,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war,  a  great 
tendency  among  women  to  rush  into  direct  war 


36  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

work.  Masses  of  women  wanted  to  leave  work 
they  knew  everything  about  to  go  and  do  work 
they  knew  nothing  about.  One  thing  we  have 
realized,  that  the  trained  and  educated  woman 
is  invaluable,  that  the  best  service  you  can  render 
your  country  is  to  do  the  work  you  know  best 
and  are  trained  for,  if  it  is,  as  it  frequently  is, 
important  civic  work.  Another  point,  no 
younger  woman  should  stop  her  education  or 
training — it  is  the  greatest  mistake  possible. 
The  war  is  not  over  and  even  when  it  is,  the  great 
task  of  reconstruction  lies  ahead  and  we  want 
every  trained  woman  we  can  get  for  that.  Our 
women  are  in  Universities  and  Colleges  in 
greater  numbers  than  ever,  and  more  opportu- 
nities for  education,  in  Medicine  in  particular 
have  been  opened  to  them. 

The  trained  woman  makes  the  best  worker  in 
practically  every  department  and  is  particularly 
useful  in  organizing.  A  scheme  that  is  only  in- 
differently good  but,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is  on  right 
lines,  well  organized  and  directed,  will  be  more 
valuable  and  get  far  better  results  than  a  perfect 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         37 

scheme  badly  organized  and  run.  An  organiza- 
tion or  a  committee  that  has  a  woman  as  Chair- 
man, President  or  Secretary,  who  insists  on  run- 
ning everything  and  deciding  everything  for 
herself,  is  bound  for  disaster. 

I  should  certainly  place  the  will  and  ability 
to  delegate  authority  high  up  in  the  qualifications 
a  good  organizer  must  possess. 

We  cannot  afford  to  have  little  petty  jeal- 
ousies, social,  local,  and  individual,  on  war  com- 
mittees or  any  other  for  that  matter,  but  in  this 
big  struggle,  they  are  particularly  petty  and 
unworthy. 

We  have  all  met  frequently  the  kind  of  person 
who  tells  you,  "This  village  will  never  work  with 
that  village,"  or  "Mrs.  This  will  never  work  with 
Mrs.  That.  They  never  do";  and  I  always  an- 
swer, "Isn't  it  time  they  learned  to.  When  their 
boys  die  in  the  trenches  together,  why  shouldn't 
they  work  together,"  and  they  always  do  when 
it  is  put  to  them. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  getting  women  to  work 
together  in  our  country.  We  have  a  link  in  our 


38  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Roll  of  Honor  that  is  more  unifying  than  any 
words  or  arguments  or  appeals  can  be.  Our 
women  of  every  rank  of  life  are  closely  drawn 
together. 

The  appeal  to  women  is  to  organize  for 
National  Service  and  to  realize  that  work  of 
national  importance  is  likely  not  to  be  at  all 
important  work. 

The  women  in  important  places  in  all  our 
countries  will  be  few  in  proportion,  but  the 
struggle  will  be  won  in  the  Nation,  as  in  the 
Army,  by  the  army  of  the  myriads  of  faithful 
workers  faithfully  performing  tasks  of  drudgery 
and  quiet  service — and  a  realization  of  this  is 
the  greatest  need. 

Sticking  to  the  work  is  of  supreme  importance. 
We  do  not  want  people  who  take  up  something 
with  great  enthusiasm  and  drop  it  in  a  few 
months.  Nothing  is  achieved  by  that. 

The  good  organizer  sees  her  workers  do  not 
"grow  weary  in  well  doing." 

Another  important  work  in  organization  is  to 
prevent  waste  of  material,  effort  and  money,  by 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         39 

co-ordination  whenever  possible,  though  I  should 
say,  as  a  broad  principle,  co-ordination  should 
not  be  carried  to  the  point  of  merging  together 
kinds  of  work  that  make  a  different  appeal  for 
work  and  money  and  require  different  treatment 
and  knowledge  and  powers.  The  best  results  are 
reached  by  securing  concentration  of  appeal  and 
organization  on  one  big  issue  and  getting  the 
work  done  by  a  group  directly  and  keenly  inter- 
ested in  the  one  big  thing  and  with  enthusiasm 
for  it  and  knowledge  of  it. 

In  the  personnel  of  committees  and  their  com- 
position our  women  have  made  it  a  definite  policy 
to  secure  the  appointment  of  women  to  all  Gov- 
ernment and  National  Committees  on  which  our 
presence  would  be  useful  and  on  which  we  ought 
to  be  represented  and  we  always  prefer  commit- 
tees of  men  and  women  together,  unless  it  be  for 
anything  that  is  distinctly  better  served  by 
women's  committees. 

There  is  one  pitfall  in  organization  into  which 
women  fall  more  readily  than  men  in  my  ex- 
perience. Our  instinct  as  women  is  to  want  to 


40  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

make  everything  perfect.  We  instinctively  run 
to  detail  and  to  a  desire  for  absolute  accuracy 
and  perfection. 

This  is  invaluable  in  many  ways,  but  in  or- 
ganizing on  a  big  scale  may  be  a  serious  fault. 
There  must,  of  course,  be  method,  order  and  ac- 
curacy, but  the  great  essential  to  secure  in  big 
things  is  harmonious  working — not  to  insist  on 
a  rigid  sameness  but  to  allow  for  widely  diverg- 
ent views  and  attitudes  and  ways  of  doing  things 
so  long  as  the  essential  rules  are  observed.  We 
should  not  insist  too  much  on  identity  in  the  way 
of  work  of  different  places  and  districts.  In  es- 
sentials— unity;  in  non-essentials,  liberty;  in  all 
things,  charity — that  might  well  be  the  wise 
organizer's  motto. 

The  supplementing  of  governmental  organiza- 
tion by  national  voluntary  organization  is  a  great 
piece  of  work  and  in  the  beginning  of  the  war, 
and  still,  many  of  our  organizations,  voluntary 
or  semi-official  in  character,  were  of  great  ser- 
vice. The  work  of  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors  Fam- 
ilies' Association  is  an  example.  The  S.  and 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         41 

S.  F.  A.  had  been  created  in  the  South  African 
War  and  in  peace  time  and  war  time  looked  after 
the  dependants  of  the  soldier  and  sailor.  Its 
committees  were  composed  of  men  and  women — 
and  it  administered  voluntary  funds  and  later 
grants  from  the  National  Relief  Fund,  raised  at 
the  outbreak  of  war. 

When  war  broke  out,  all  the  Reservists  were 
called  up  and  our  men  volunteered  in  tens  of 
thousands.  The  pay  offices  of  the  army,  being 
small  like  everything  else  in  our  army,  could  not 
cope  quickly  with  the  numbers  of  claims  for  al- 
lowances pouring  in,  but  the  S.  and  S.  F.  A. 
stepped  into  the  breach  and  looked  after  the 
dependants.  It  secured  vast  numbers  more  of 
women  in  every  town  and  village  who  visited 
every  dependant  and  looked  after  them.  They 
advanced  the  allowances  which  were  paid  back 
to  them  later — and  this  started  in  the  first  week 
of  the  war.  They  gave  additional  grants  in  cer- 
tain hard  cases  for  rent,  sickness  or  in  event  of 
deaths  in  family  at  home.  Every  home  was  vis- 
ited and  no  dependant  needed  to  be  in  distress 


42  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

or  want — S.  and  S.  F.  A.  offices  existed  in  every 
town  and  representatives  in  every  village  and 
any  difficulty  or  trouble  could  be  brought  to 
them.  The  whole  of  this  work  is  done  volun- 
tarily. In  some  cases  workrooms  were  started 
from  which  sewing  and  knitting  for  soldiers  and 
sailors  were  given  to  the  dependents  and  paid  for. 
It  was  not  only  the  money  and  practical  help 
that  was  of  great  service — the  S.  and  S.  F.  A. 
visitor  to  the  soldier's  wife  and  mother  brought 
sympathy  and  help  and  interest. 

Another  movement  for  soldiers  and  sailors 
dependents  was  the  founding  of  clubs  for  them 
in  many  towns.  One  hundred  and  thirty-five  of 
these  clubs  are  linked  up  now  in  the  United  Ser- 
vices Clubs  League.  They  are  bright,  cheery 
rooms  in  which  the  women  can  find  newspapers, 
books,  music,  amusement,  and  opportunity  to 
sew  or  knit  comforts,  can  meet  their  friends 
and  talk. 

The  Royal  Patriotic  Fund  was  another  semi- 
official organization  which  was  run  voluntarily, 
gave  grants  at  death  of  soldier  or  sailor  and 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         43 

administered  pensions.  It  is  now  entirely 
merged  in  the  Naval  and  Military  War  Pensions 
Statutory  Committee  and  local  committees  set 
up  in  January,  1916,  which  administer  all 
grants,  pensions,  wound  gratuities,  etc.,  and 
looks  after  dependants. 

Women  sit  on  the  Statutory  Committee  and 
there  must  be  women  members  on  every  County, 
Borough  and  City  War  Pensions  Committee  in 
our  country. 

The  organization  of  war  charities  is  now  in 
England  controlled  by  the  War  Charities  Com- 
mittee appointed  by  the  Government  in  April, 
1916.  The  committee  controls  not  only  what 
could  be  strictly  termed  War  Charities,  but  all 
war  agencies  of  any  kind  for  which  appeals  for 
funds  are  made  to  the  public.  These  organiza- 
tions must  be  registered  and  approved  by  the 
committee,  and  their  accounts  must  be  open  to 
inspection  and  audit.  This  was  a  wise  and  nec- 
essary step,  not  so  much  because  of  actual  fraud- 
ulent appeals — there  has  been  practically  none 
of  that,  but  there  was  a  certain  amount  of  over- 


44  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

lapping  and  of  waste  of  money,  material  and 
energy,  and  some  very  few  organizations  in  which 
an  undue  proportion  of  funds  raised  was  ab- 
sorbed in  expenses.  Comforts  for  soldiers  and 
prisoners  of  war  parcels  are  also  now  co-ordi- 
nated under  two  national  committees. 

The  first  work  of  registering  Belgian  refugees 
and  of  providing  French  and  Flemish  inter- 
preters was  done  by  a  voluntary  organization— 
the  London  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage  (a 
branch  of  N.  U.  W.  S.  S. ) ,  which  has  always  been 
notable  for  its  admirable  organization.  It  pro- 
vided 150  interpreters  for  this  work  in  a  few 
days,  and  work  was  carried  on  at  all  the  London 
Centres  from  early  morning  till  midnight.  When 
the  Government  took  over  the  charge  of  Belgian 
refugees,  the  system  of  registration  used  by  the 
London  Society  was  adopted  without  change  by 
them  and  the  organizer  in  charge  was  taken  over 
also  and  put  in  a  very  responsible  position  at 
the  \Var  Refugees  Committee's  Headquarters. 

The  work  of  our  Government  Employment 
Exchanges  (which  were  established  before  the 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         45 

War  by  the  Board  of  Trade)  and  are  now  under 
the  Ministry  of  Labour — has  been  supplemented 
by  various  Professional  Women's  Bureaus,  by 
the  compiling  of  a  Professional  Women's  Reg- 
ister, secured  through  Universities,  Colleges, 
Headmistresses'  Association,  etc.,  and  by  the 
setting  up  of  the  Women's  Service  Bureau  by  the 
London  Society  for  Women  Suffrage  (N.  U.  W. 
S.  S.)«  Various  women's  organizations  have  es- 
tablished most  valuable  clearing  houses  for 
voluntary  workers  in  Scotland  and  England  and 
Wales.  The  Women's  Service  Bureau  has  dealt 
with  40,000  applications  for  voluntary  and  paid 
work — mostly  paid.  Its  interviewers  take  the 
greatest  trouble  to  place  these  applicants  suit- 
ably, and  to  find  out  just  what  they  can  do  or 
would  be  good  at  doing. 

Our  biggest  Government  arsenal  secured  their 
first  munition  supervisors  through  it — and  the 
Government  Departments,  big  firms,  factories, 
organizations,  banks,  workshops,  institutions  of 
any  kind,  send  to  it  for  workers. 

It  not  only  finds  these  posts  without  charge — 


46  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

it  is  supported  entirely  by  voluntary  contribu- 
tion— but  it  has  a  loan  and  grant  fund  to  enable 
women  and  girls  without  money  to  pay  for 
training  and  maintenance. 

Its  records  and  the  letters  in  its  files  provide 
reading  that  is  as  absorbing  as  any  novel,  and  it 
was  one  of  the  wise  agencies  that  realized  the 
older  woman  had  a  place  and  could  help  as  well 
as  the  younger  ones. 

To  find  the  person  and  the  post  and  to  put 
them  together  is  its  fascinating  and  admirably 
done  task. 

The  organization  done  by  women  in  Britain 
has  been  notable  and  admirable. 

I  can  only  touch  on  some  of  it  and  must  leave 
out  much,  but  it  is  worth  while  noting  that  there 
has  been  very  little  overlapping  in  the  work. 
The  total  percentage  of  overlapping  was  esti- 
mated by  the  War  Charities  Committee  on  their 
investigation  at  10  per  cent  and  of  that  only  a 
very  small  amount  was  due  to  women. 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         47 

WOMEN  HAVE  SERVED  OR  ARE  SERVING  ON  THE 
FOLLOWING  GOVERNMENT  COMMITTEES. 


Belgian  Refugees'  Committee.    1914. 
Clerical  and  Commercial  Occupation  Committee, 
do  (Scotland.)     1915. 

Disabled  Officers  and  Men. 

Education  After  the  War.    April,  1916. 

Educational  Reform.     (August,  1916.) 

Food,  Committee  of  Inquiry  Into  High  Cost  of — 
June,  1916. 

Advisory  Committee  on  Women  in  Industry. 
March,  1916. 

Labor  Commission  to  Deal  with  Industrial  Un- 
rest. (Ministry  of  Labor.)  June,  1917. 

Munitions  Central  Labor  Supply  Committee. 

Munitions,  Arbitration  Tribunals. 

Munitions,  Committee  on  the  Supply  and  Or- 
ganization of  Women's  Service  in  Canteens, 
Hostels,  Clubs,  etc.  December,  1916. 

Naval  and  Military  War  Pensions  Statutory 
Committee.  January,  1916. 

Nurses,  Supply  of — October,  1916. 


48  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Polish  Victims'  Relief  Fund. 

Prevention  and  Relief  of  Distress.     1914. 

Professional  Classes  Sub-Committee. 

Prisoners  of  War  Help  Committee. 

Reconstruction  Committee.  (To  advise  the  Gov- 
ernment on  the  many  national  problems 
which  will  arise  at  the  end  of  the  war.) 
1916. 

Shops :  Committee  of  Inquiry,  to  Consider  Con- 
ditions of  Retail  Trade  to  Secure  the  Enlist- 
ment of  Men.  (November,  1915.) 

Teachers'  Salaries.  Departmental  Committee  of 
Enquiry.  June,  1917. 

Wrar  Charities.    April,  1916. 

National  War  Savings  Committee.    April,  1916. 


ORGANIZATION  AND  ITS  PITFALLS         49 


COMMITTEES  EXCLUSIVELY  COMPOSED  OF  WOMEN. 

Committee,  Report  on  Joint  Standing  Industrial 

Councils.    1917. 

Women's  Wages  Committee.    1917. 
Central   Committee   on   Women's   Employment. 

1914. 
Drinking  Among  Women,  Committee  of  Enquiry. 

November,  1915. 

There  are  also  two  women  on  the — 
Executive  Committee  of  National  Relief  Fund. 
Ministry  of  Food  has  two  women  Co-Directors — 

Mrs.  C.  S.  Peel 

Mrs.  Pember  Reeves 


HOSPITALS— RED  CROSS— V.A.D, 

"Come,  ye  blessed  of  my  Father; 
I  was  sick  and  ye  visited  me." 

—MATT.,  Chap.  25. 

"A  lady  with  a  lamp  shall  stand 
In  the  great  history  of  the  land, 
A  noble  type  of  good 
Heroic  womanhood." 

— H.  W.  LONGFELLOW, 
"To  Florence  Nightingale." 


CHAPTER   III 

HOSPITALS— RED  CROSS— V.  A.  D. 

WHEN  war  broke  out  on  August  4,  1914, 
probably  the  only  women  in  our  country 
who  knew  exactly  how  they  could  help, 
and  would  be  used  in  the  war,  were  our  nurses 
in  the  Navy  and  Army  nursing  services. 

In  the  Army,  Queen  Alexandra's  Imperial 
Military  Nursing  Service  had  in  it  at  that  time 
about  280  members,  matrons,  sisters  and  staff 
nurses,  Miss  Becher,  R.R.C.,  being  Matron-in- 
Chief  for  Military  Hospitals.  The  Q.  A.  I.  M. 
N.  S.  had  a  large  Reserve  which  was  also  imme- 
diately called  out  and  these  nurses  were  used  at 
once,  six  parties  being  sent  to  France  and 
Belgium  by  August  20th. 

The  Second  Branch  was  the  Territorial  Force 
Nursing  Service,  which  was  in  1914  eight  years 
old.  It  was  initiated  by  Miss  Haldane  and  a 
draft  scheme  of  an  establishment  of  nurses  will- 
ing to  serve  in  general  hospitals  in  the  event  of 


54  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

the  Territorial  Forces  being  mobilized,  was  sub- 
mitted at  a  meeting  held  in  Miss  Haldane's 
house,  Sir  Alfred  Keogh,  Medical  Director  Gen- 
eral, being  present.  This  scheme  was  approved 
and  an  Advisory  Council  appointed  at  the  War 
Office. 

The  Matrons  of  the  largest  and  most  important 
nurse-training  centres  in  the  Kingdom  were 
appointed  as  principal  matrons  (unpaid)  and 
to  them  the  success  of  this  Force  is  largely  due. 
They  received  the  applications  of  matrons,  sisters 
and  nurses  willing  to  join,  looked  after  their  ref- 
erences and  submitted  them,  after  approval  by 
the  Local  Committee,  to  the  Advisory  Council. 
To  their  splendid  work  was  due  the  ease  of  the 
vast  mobilization  of  nurses  when  war  broke  out. 
There  were  then  3,0§0  nurses  on  their  rolls.  On 
August  5th  they  were  called  out  and  in  ten  days 
23  Territorial  General  Hospitals  in  England, 
Wales  and  Scotland  were  ready  to  receive  the 
wounded  and  the  nurses  were  also  ready. 

Each  hospital  had  520  beds,  but  this  accommo- 
dation was  quite  inadequate  after  a  few  months 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         55 

of  war,  and  the  accommodation  of  practically 
every  hospital  was  increased  to  1,000  to 
3,000  beds  and  many  Auxiliary  Hospitals  had 
to  be  organized.  By  June,  1915,  the  Territorial 
Nursing  Staff  was  4,000  in  number  and  in  Hos- 
pitals in  France  and  in  Belgium  and  in  clearing 
stations,  there  were  over  400  Territorial  Nurses 
as  well  as  Imperial  Nurses. 

The  Naval  Nurses  were  about  70  in  number 
with  a  Reserve,  and  their  Reserve  was  called  up 
at  once  also,  and  they  went  to  their  various  Hos- 
pitals. The  other  two  great  organizations,  the 
British  Red  Cross  and  the  order  of  St.  John  of 
Jerusalem,  now  working  together  through  the 
joint  committee  set  up  to  administer  the  Times 
Fund  for  the  Red  Cross,  which  has  reached  over 
130,000,000,  had  their  schemes  also.  In  time  of 
war  they  are  controlled  by  the  War  Office  and 
Admiralty.  The  Red  Cross  had,  since  1909,  or- 
ganized Voluntary  Aid  Detachments  to  give  vol- 
untary aid  to  the  sick  and  wounded  in  the  event 
of  war  in  home  territory.  There  were  60,000  men 
and  women  trained  in  transport  work,  cooking, 


56  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

laundry,  first  aid  and  home  nursing.  St.  John's 
ambulance  had  the  same  system  of  ambulance 
workers  and  V.  A.  D.'s  to  call  on. 

As  the  war  proceeded  it  was  quite  clear  that 
the  nursing  staffs,  though  we  had  secured  3,000 
more  trained  nurses  through  the  Red  Cross  in 
the  first  few  weeks  of  the  war,  would  be  quite 
inadequate,  and  it  was  found  necessary  to  use 
V.  A.  D.'s  and  to  open  V.  A.  D.  Hospitals,  most 
of  them  being  established  in  large  private  houses 
lent  for  the  purpose.  Within  nine  months  there 
were  800  of  these  at  work  in  every  part  of  Eng- 
land, Scotland  and  Wales.  The  V.  A.  D.'s  suf- 
fered a  little  at  first  from  confusion  with  the 
ladies  who  insisted  on  rushing  off  to  France  after 
taking  a  ten  day's  course  in  first  aid.  We  had 
suffered  a  great  deal  from  that  kind  of  thing  in 
the  South  African  War  and  were  determined  to 
have  no  repetition  of  it,  so  they  were  firmly  and 
decisively  removed  from  France  without  delay. 

To  get  more  trained  nurses,  rules  were  relaxed 
and  the  age  limit  raised.  Many  nurses,  retired 
and  married,  returned  to  work,  but  very  quickly 


mem 


HOSPITALS — KED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         57 

it  was  perfectly  clear  our  trained  nurses  were 
inadequate  in  number  for  the  great  work  before 
us,  and  in  less  than  a  year  in  most  hospitals 
every  ward  had  one  V.  A.  D.  worker  assisting 
who  had  been  nominated  by  her  Commandant 
and  County  Director,  and  in  March,  1915,  the 
Hospitals  were  asked  by  the  Director  General 
of  the  Army  Medical  Service  to  train  V.  A.  D.'s 
in  large  numbers  as  probationers,  for  three  or 
six  months,  to  fit  them  for  work  under  trained 
nurses.  Every  possible  woman,  trained  or  par- 
tially trained,  was  mobilized  and  thousands  have 
been  trained  during  the  three  years  of  war,  and 
V.  A.  D.  members  have  been  drafted  to  military 
and  Red  Cross  Hospitals,  abroad  and  at  home, 
in  addition  to  doing  the  work  of  the  V.  A.  D. 
Hospitals.  A  V.  A.  D.  Hospital  with  a  hundred 
beds  will  have  two  trained  nurses,  and  all 
the  other  work  is  done  by  V.  A.  D.'s.  The  Com- 
mandant-in-Chief  now  is  Lady  Ampthill.  Dame 
Katharine  Furse  was  Commandant-in-Chief  until 
quite  recently,  but  is  now  head  of  the  new 
Women's  Royal  Navy  Service. 


58  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Many  have  gone  to  France  and  done  distin- 
guished work  and  there  is  no  body  of  women  in 
our  country  who  have  done  more  faithful  and 
useful  work  than  our  V.  A.  D.'s,  who  nurse,  cook 
and  wash  dishes,  serve  meals,  scrub  the  floors, 
look  after  the  linen  and  do  everything  for  the 
comfort  and  welfare  of  our  men,  with  a  capacity, 
zeal  and  endurance  beyond  praise.  About  60,000 
women  have  helped  in  this  way.  Our  nurses  and 
V.  A.  D.'s  have  distinguished  themselves  at  home 
and  abroad.  They  have  been  in  casualty  lists 
on  all  our  fronts.  They  have  been  decorated  for 
bravery  and  for  heroic  work.  The  full  value  of 
all  they  have  done  cannot  yet  be  appraised.  They 
have  spent  themselves  unceasingly  in  caring  for 
our  men.  They  have  nursed  them  with  shells 
falling  around.  Hospitals  have  frequently  been 
shelled  and  in  one  case  two  nurses  worked  in  a 
theatre,  wearing  steel  helmets  during  the  bom- 
bardment, with  patients  who  were  under  anaes- 
thetics and  could  not  be  moved.  They  have 
waited  out  beside  men  who  could  not  be  got  in 
from  under  shell  fire  of  the  enemy  until  darkness 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         59 

fell.  Two  V.  A.  D.  nurses  in  another  raid  saw 
to  the  removal  of  all  their  patients  to  cellars  and, 
while  they  themselves  were  entering  the  cellars 
after  everyone  was  safe,  bombs  fell  upon  the 
building  they  had  just  left  and  completely  de- 
molished it.  Some  of  our  nurses  have  died  of 
typhus.  They  have  been  wounded  in  Hospitals 
and  on  Hospital  Trains,  and  they  have  done  all 
their  work  as  cheerfully  and  with  the  same  high 
courage  as  our  men  have.  We  have  had  helping 
us  in  our  nursing  numbers  of  Canadian  nurses, 
not  only  for  the  beautiful  Canadian  Hospital  at 
Beechborough  Park,  but  for  many  other  Hos- 
pitals in  England  and  France,  and  nurses  from 
Australia  and  New  Zealand. 

We  have  had  American  nurses,  also,  but  these 
will  now  be  absorbed,  as  needed,  by  the  American 
Army  in  France. 

The  records  of  our  Medical  women  in  the  war 
are  among  the  very  best.  The  belief  that  nursing 
was  woman's  work  but  that  medicine  and  sur- 
gery were  not,  was  dying  before  the  war,  but  it 
existed,  and  it  was  the  war  that  gave  it  the  final 


60  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

death  blow.  Immediately  war  broke  out  Dr. 
Louisa  Garrett  Anderson,  a  daughter  of  our 
pioneer  woman  doctor,  Dr.  Elizabeth  Garrett 
Anderson,  and  Dr.  Flora  Murray  formed  the 
Women's  Hospital  Corps,  a  complete  small  unit 
and  offered  it  to  the  British  Government.  It 
was  refused  but  accepted  by  the  French  Govern- 
ment, and  was  established  by  them  at  Claridge's 
Hotel  in  Paris,  where  it  did  admirable  work.  Its 
work  aroused  the  interest  and  admiration  of  the 
British  Koyal  Army  Medical  Corps,  and  they 
were  asked  to  form  a  Hospital  at  Wimereux, 
which  afterwards  amalgamated  with  the  R.  A. 
M.  C.  Later  Sir  Alfred  Keogh  established  them 
in  Endell  Street,  London,  where  they  have  a 
Hospital  of  over  700  beds.  The  women  surgeons 
and  doctors  and  staff  are  graded  for  purposes 
of  pay  in  the  same  way  as  men  members  of 
R.  A.  M.  C. 

In  July,  1916,  the  War  Office  asked  for  the 
services  of  80  medical  women  for  work  at  home 
and  abroad,  and  later  for  50  more. 

The  Women's  Service  League  sent  a  unit  to 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         61 

Antwerp  which  did  some  excellent  work,  though 
it  was  there  only  a  very  short  time.  The  mem- 
bers of  the  unit  were  among  the  last  to  leave 
the  city,  escaping  in  the  last  car  to  cross  the 
bridge  before  it  was  blown  up. 

The  work  of  the  Scottish  Women's  Hospitals, 
organized  by  the  Scottish  Federation  of  the  Na- 
tional Union  of  Women's  Suffrage  Societies,  and 
initiated  by  Dr.  Elsie  Inglis,  of  Edinburgh, 
would  require  a  volume  to  themselves,  and  Amer- 
ican women,  who  have  given  so  generously  and  so 
freely  to  them,  know  a  great  deal  about  their 
work.  The  first  unit  went  to  Royaumont  in 
France,  and  established  itself  at  the  old  Abbaye 
there.  It  stood  from  the  beginning  in  the  very 
first  rank  for  efficiency.  A  leading  French  ex- 
pert, Chief  of  the  Pasteur  Laboratory  in  Paris, 
speaking  of  this  Hospital,  said  he  had  inspected 
hundreds  of  military  Hospitals,  but  not  one 
which  commanded  his  admiration  so  completely 
as  this.  Another  unit  was  sent  to  Troyes  and 
was  maintained  by  the  students  of  Newnham  and 
Girton  Colleges.  Dr.  Elsie  Inglis's  greatest  work 


62  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

began  in  April,  1915,  when  her  third  unit  went 
to  Serbia,  where  she  may  be  truly  said  to  have 
saved  the  Serbian  nation  from  despair.  The 
typhus  epidemic  had  at  the  time  of  her  arrival 
carried  off  one-third  of  the  Serbian  Army  Med- 
ical Corps,  and  the  epidemic  threatened  the  very 
existence  of  the  Serbian  Army.  She  organized 
four  great  Hospital  Units,  initiated  every  kind 
of  needful  sanitary  precaution,  looked  into  every 
detail,  regardless  of  her  own  safety  and  comfort, 
hesitating  at  no  task,  however  loathsome  and 
terrible.  Her  constant  message  to  the  Serbian 
Medical  Headquarters  Staff  was  "Tell  me  where 
your  need  is  greatest  without  respect  to  diffi- 
culties, and  we  will  do  our  best  to  help  Serbia 
and  her  brave  soldiers." 

Two  nurses  and  one  of  the  doctors  died  of 
typhus.  Miss  Margaret  Neil  Fraser,  the  famous 
golfer,  was  one  of  those  who  died  there,  and 
many  beds  were  endowed  in  the  Second  Unit  in 
her  memory. 

The  Third  Serbian  Unit  when  on  its  way  out 
was  commandeered  by  Lord  Methuen  at  Malta 


HOSPITALS— BED  CROSS— V.  A.  D.        63 

for  service  among  our  own  wounded  troops,  a 
service  they  were  glad  to  render.  Later  when 
the  Germans  and  Austrians  overran  Serbia,  one 
of  the  Units  retreated  with  the  Serbian  Army, 
but  the  one  in  which  Dr.  Inglis  was,  remained 
at  Kralijevo  where  she  refused  to  leave  her 
Serbian  wounded,  knowing  they  would  die  with- 
out her  care.  She  was  captured  with  her  staff 
and,  after  difficulties  and  indignities  and  discom- 
forts, they  were  released  by  the  Austrians  and  re- 
turned through  Switzerland  to  England.  On 
her  return  she  urged  the  War  Office  to  send  her, 
and  her  Unit,  to  Mesopotamia.  Rumors  had 
already  reached  England  of  the  terrible  state  of 
things  there  from  the  medical  point  of  view, 
which  was  fully  revealed  later  by  the  Mesopo- 
tamian  Commission.  She  was  refused  permis- 
sion to  go,  though  it  is  perfectly  clear  their 
assistance  would  have  been  invaluable  and  ought 
to  have  been  used.  Once  more  she  returned  to 
help  the  Serbians  and  established  Units  in  the 
Balkans  and  South  Russia.  The  Serbian  people 
have  shown  every  token  of  gratitude  and  of  honor 


64  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

which  it  was  in  their  power  to  bestow  upon  her. 
The  people  in  1916  put  up  a  fountain  in  her 
honor  at  Mladenovatz,  and  the  Serbian  Crown 
Prince  conferred  on  her  the  highest  honor  Serbia 
has  to  give,  the  First  Order  of  the  White  Eagle. 
Dr.  Inglis  died,  on  November  26th,  three  days 
after  bringing  her  Unit  safely  home  from  South 
Russia.  Memorial  services  were  held  in  her 
honor  at  St.  Margaret's,  Westminster,  and  in  St. 
Giles's  Cathedral,  Edinburgh.  Those  who  were 
there  speak  of  it  not  a®  a  funeral  but  as  a 
triumph.  The  streets  were  thronged;  all  Edin- 
burgh turned  out  to  do  her  homage  as  she  went 
to  her  last  resting  place.  The  Scottish  Command 
was  represented  and  lent  the  gun-carriage  on 
which  the  coffin  was  borne  and  the  Union  Jack 
which  covered  it. 

In  the  Cathedral  the  Rev.  Dr.  Wallace  Wil- 
liamson, Dean  of  the  Order  of  The  Thistle,  said : 
"We  are  assembled  this  day  with  sad  but  proud 
and  grateful  hearts  to  remember  before  God  a 
very  dear  and  noble  lady,  our  beloved  sister, 
Elsie  Inglis,  who  has  been  called  to  her  rest. 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         65 

We  mourn  only  for  ourselves,  not  for  her.  She 
has  died  as  she  lived,  in  the  clear  light  of  faith 
and  self-forgetfulness,  and  now  her  name  is 
linked  forever  with  the  great  souls  who  have  led 
the  van  of  womanly  service  for  God  and  man. 
A  wondrous  union  of  strength  and  tenderness, 
of  courage  and  sweetness,  she  remains  for  us  a 
bright  and  noble  memory  of  high  devotion  and 
stainless  honor.  .  .  .  Especially  today,  in  the 
presence  of  representatives  of  the  land  for  which 
she  died,  we  think  of  her  as  an  immortal  link 
between  Serbia  and  Scotland,  and  as  a  symbol  of 
that  high  courage  which  will  sustain  us,  please 
God,  till  that  stricken  land  is  once  again  re- 
stored, and  till  the  tragedy  of  war  is  eradicated 
and  crowned  with  God's  great  gifts  of  peace  and 
of  righteousness." 

The  National  Union  of  Women's  Suffrage  So- 
cities  also  sent  the  Millicent  Fawcett  Unit, 
named  after  its  honoured  President,  to  Russia  in 
1916  to  work  among  the  Polish  refugees,  es- 
pecially to  do  maternity  nursing,  and  work 
among  the  children. 

5 


66  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

In  February  a  Maternity  Unit  started  work  in 
Petrograd.  With  an  excellent  staff  of  women 
doctors,  nurses  and  orderlies,  the  little  hospital 
proved  a  veritable  haven  of  helpfulness  to  the 
distressed  refugee  mothers.  It  soon  established 
so  good  a  reputation  for  its  thorough  and  disin- 
terested work  that  the  help  of  the  workers  was 
asked  for  by  the  Moscow  Union  of  Zenistovos 
(Town  and  Rural  Councils)  for  Middle  Russia 
and  Galicia. 

In  May  the  Millicent  Fawcett  Hospital  Units 
were  sent  out  and  at  Kazan  on  the  Volga  a  badly 
needed  Children's  Hospital  for  infectious  dis- 
eases was  opened.  The  only  other  hospital  in  the 
place  was  so  full  that  it  had  two  patients  in  each 
bed.  They  had  a  fierce  fight  against  diphtheria 
and  scarlet  fever,  which  in  many  cases  was  very 
bad,  and  they  succeeded  in  saving  most  of  the 
children,  who  would  certainly  have  died  in  their 
miserable  homes. 

In  the  summer,  the  Units  took  over  a  small 
hospital  at  Stara  Chilnoe,  a  district  without  a 
doctor,  and  they  treated  not  only  refugees,  but 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         67 

the  peasants  who  came  in  daily  in  crowds  from 
the  surrounding  districts.  Other  Units  of  the 
same  kind  were  started  in  remote  districts  and 
in  summer  a  Holiday  Home  at  Suida  was  run 
to  which  the  women  and  children  could  come 
from  the  Petrograd  Maternity  Hospital  for  a 
rest.  They  also  took  charge  of  two  hospitals, 
temporarily  without  any  medical  staff,  in  a  re- 
mote part  of  the  Kazan  district,  where  they  were 
objects  of  the  most  intense  curiosity. 

The  interpreters  were  kept  busy  answering 
questions  about  the  ages,  salaries  and  husbands 
of  the  staff,  and  the  nurses'  wrist  watches  roused 
great  excitement. 

That  their  gratitude  and  kindness  was  very 
real,  though  their  notions  of  suitability  of  place 
and  time  were  primitive,  was  shown  by  the  gift 
of  three  live  hens  being  dumped,  at  4  a.  m.,  on 
the  bed  of  a  sister  sound  asleep. 

The  final  piece  of  work  was  the  establishing 
of  an  infectious  Hospital  for  peasants  and  sol- 
diers in  Volhynia,  sixty  miles  behind  the  firing 


68  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

line  in  Galicia.  This  was  done  at  the  urgent 
request  of  the  Zemstovos  Union. 

There  they  had  to  deal  with  a  great  deal  of 
smallpox  and  in  another  case  with  scabies  which 
they  stamped  out  in  one  small  village.  These 
Units  left  Russia  before  the  recent  changes,  but 
their  work  was  valuable  and  appreciated,  and 
again  American  women  helped  us  in  raising  the 
necessary  funds,  having  subscribed  |7,500 
towards  the  Units. 

One  of  the  workers,  Ruth  Holden,  of  Radcliffe 
College,  Boston,  died  in  one  of  the  epidemics. 
We  have  had  American  women,  as  we  have  had 
men,  helping  us  from  the  beginning  of  the  war. 
The  American  Women's  War  Relief  Fund  most 
generously  offered  to  fully  equip  and  maintain 
a  surgical  hospital  of  250  beds  at  Oldway  House, 
Paignton,  South  Devon,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
war,  and  this  offer  was  gratefully  accepted  by 
the  War  Office  through  the  Red  Cross  Society. 

They  also  gifted  six  motor  ambulances  for 
use  at  the  front — and  these  and  the  hospital  have 


HOSPITALS — RED  CROSS — V.  A.  D.         69 

been  of  the  very  greatest  service  to  our  wounded 
men. 

Others  of  our  medical  women  are  with  mixed 
Units,  such  as  The  Wounded  Allies'  Relief  Com- 
mittee. Dr.  Dickinson  Berry  went  out  with 
others  in  a  Unit  from  the  Royal  Free  Hospital 
to  help  the  Serbian  Government,  and  Dr.  Alice 
Clark  is  in  the  Friends'  Unit. 

Our  medical  women  have  won  rich  laurels  and   \ 
have  established  themselves  in  their  own  pro-    | 
fession   permanently  and   thoroughly.     Behind 
the  Hospitals, -we  have  the  thousands  of  women 
who   every   day   are   working  at   the   Hospital 
Supply  Depots  of  our  country.    These  are  every- 
where and  nothing  is  more  wonderful  than  the 
way  in  which  our  voluntary  workers  have  gone  <A  / 
on  faithfully  working,  conforming  to  discipline 
and  hours  and  steady  service  as  conscientiously 
as  any  paid  worker. 

The  organizing  ability  displayed  by  our 
women  in  this  amounts  to  genius.  The  buying 
of  material,  cutting  and  making  up,  parcelling, 
storing,  and  packing  of  gigantic  supplies,  all  the 


70  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

secretarial  and  clerical  work  involved  has  been 
the  work  of  women  and  mostly  of  women  of  the 
leisured  classes,  many  of  them  without  any  pre- 
vious training.  From  the  organization  of  the 
big  schemes  of  supply  down  to  such  work  as  the 
collecting  of  sphagnum  moss,  everything  that 
was  needed  has  been  done,  and  done  well. 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO 
THE  SOLDIER" 

"It's  a  long,  long  way  to  Tipperary, 
But  my  heart's  right  there." 

"Cheero." 


CHAPTER  IV 

/'BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO 
THE  SOLDIER" 

*  'T)  LIGHT Y"  is  Home,   the  British  soldiers 
[)  in  India's  corruption  of  the  Hindustanee, 
and    Blighty    is    a    word    we    all    know 
well  now. 

The  full  records  of  this  are  not  easy  to  give — so 
much  has  been  done.  Perhaps  the  simplest  way  is 
to  begin  with  the  soldier  at  the  training  camp 
and  follow  him  through  his  soldier's  existence. 
The  first  work  lies  in  giving  him  comforts,  and 
the  women  of  our  country  still  knit  a  good  deal 
and  in  the  early  days  knitted,  as  you  do  now  to 
get  your  supplies,  in  trains  and  tubes  and 
theatres  and  concerts,  and  public  meetings.  This 
was  happening  while  many  of  our  working 
women  were  without  work  and  it  was  felt  that 
this  was  likely  to  compete  very  seriously  with 
the  work  of  these  women.  The  Queen  realized 
there  was  likely  to  be  hardships  through  this 


74  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

and  also  that  there  would  probably  be  a  great 
waste  of  material  if  voluntary  effort  was  not 
wisely  guided.  So  she  called  at  Buckingham 
Palace  a  committee  of  women  to  consider  the 
position  and  Queen  Mary's  Needlework  Guild 
was  the  outcome  of  it.  The  following  official 
statement,  issued  on  August  21,  1914,  intimated 
the  Queen's  wishes  and  policy. 

Queen  Mary's  Needlework  Guild  has  received  repre- 
sentations to  the  effect  that  the  provision  of  garments 
by  voluntary  labor  may  have  the  consequence  of  de- 
priving of  their  employment  workpeople  who  would 
have  been  engaged  for  wages  in  the  making  of  the  same 
garments  for  contractors  to  the  Government.  A  very 
large  part  of  the  garments  collected  by  the  Guild  con- 
sists, however,  of  articles  which  would  not  in  the  ordi- 
nary course  have  been  purchased  by  the  Government. 
They  include  additional  comforts  for  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  actually  serving,  and  for  the  sick  and  wounded 
in  hospital,  clothing  for  members  of  their  families  who 
may  fall  into  distress,  and  clothing  to  be  distributed  by 
the  local  committees  for  the  prevention  and  relieving  of 
distress  among  families  who  may  be  suffering  from  un- 
employment owing  to  the  war.  If  these  garments  were 
not  made  by  the  voluntary  labor  of  women  who  are 
willing  to  do  their  share  of  work  for  the  country  in  the 
best  way  open  to  them,  they  would  not,  in  the  majority 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    75 

of  cases,  be  made  at  all.  The  result  would  be  that 
families  in  distress  would  receive  in  the  winter  no  help 
in  the  form  of  clothing,  and  the  soldiers  and  the  sailors 
and  the  men  in  hospitals  would  not  enjoy  the  additional 
comforts  that  would  be  provided.  The  Guild  is  in- 
formed that  flannel  shirts,  socks,  and  cardigan  jackets 
are  a  Government  issue  for  soldiers;  flannel  vest,  socks, 
and  jerseys  for  sailors;  pajama  suits,  serge  gowns  for 
military  hospitals;  underclothing,  flannel  gowns  and 
flannel  waistcoats  for  naval  hospitals.  Her  Majesty  the 
Queen  is  most  anxious  that  work  done  for  the  Needle- 
work Guild  should  not  have  a  harmful  effect  on  the 
employment  of  men,  women,  and  girls  in  the  trades 
concerned,  and  therefore  desires  that  the  workers  of 
the  Guild  should  devote  themselves  to  the  making  of 
garments  other  than  those  which  would,  in  the  ordinary 
course,  be  bought  by  the  War  Office  and  Admiralty.  All 
kinds  of  garments  will  be  needed  for  distribution  in  the 
winter  if  there  is  exceptional  distress. 

The  Queen  would  remind  those  that  are  assisting  the 
Guild  that  garments  which  are  bought  from  the  shops 
and  are  sent  to  the  Guild  are  equally  acceptable,  and 
their  purchases  would  have  the  additional  advantage  of 
helping  to  secure  the  continuance  of  employment  of 
women  engaged  in  their  manufacture.  It  is,  however, 
not  desirable  that  any  appeal  for  funds  should  be  made 
for  this  purpose  which  would  conflict  with  the  collection 
of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  Fund. 

Branches  of  Queen  Mary's  Needlework  Guild 


76  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

were  started  everywhere  and  the  Mayoresses  of 
practically  every  town  in  the  Kingdom  organized 
their  own  towns.  Gifts  came  from  all  over  the 
world  and  a  book  kept  at  Friary  Court,  St. 
James',  records  the  gifts  received  from  Greater 
Britain  and  the  neutral  countries. 

The  demand  for  comforts  was  very  great  and 
in  ten  months  the  gross  number  of  articles  re- 
ceived was  1,101,105,  but  this  did  not  represent 
anything  like  all.  It  was  the  Queen's  wish  that 
the  branches  of  her  Guild  should  be  free  to  do 
as  they  wished  in  distribution,  send  to  local 
regiments,  or  regiments  quartered  in  the  neigh- 
borhood, or  use  them  for  local  distress.  Great 
care  was  taken  to  see  there  was  no  overlapping, 
and  this  is  secured  fully  by  Sir  Edward  Ward's 
Committee. 

Our  men  have  been  well  looked  after  in  the 
way  of  comforts,  socks  and  mitts  and  gloves  and 
jerseys,  and  mufflers  and  gloves  for  minesweep- 
ers and  helmets,  everything  they  needed,  and  the 
Regimental  Comforts  Funds  and  work  still 
exists  as  well,  all  co-ordinated  now. 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    77 

The  Fleet  has  also  had  fresh  vegetables  sup- 
plied to  it  the  whole  time  by  a  voluntary  agency. 

At  the  Training  Camps,  in  France,  in  every 
field  of  war,  we  have  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.,  and  there 
is  no  soldier  in  these  days  and  no  civilian  who 
does  not  know  the  Red  Triangle.  There  are  over 
1,000  huts  in  Britain  and  over  150  in  France. 
It  is  the  sign  that  means  something  to  eat  and 
something  warm  to  drink,  somewhere  cozy  and 
warm  out  of  the  cold  and  chill  and  damp  of 
winter  camp  and  trench,  somewhere  to  write  a 
letter,  somewhere  to  read  and  talk,  somewhere 
that  brings  all  of  "Blighty"  that  can  come  to  the 
field  of  war.  In  our  Y.  M.  C.  A.  huts,  30,000 
women  work.  In  the  camp  towns  we  have  also 
the  Guest  Houses,  run  by  voluntary  organiza- 
tions of  women.  In  the  Town  Halls  we  have  teas 
and  music  and  in  our  houses  we  entertain 
overseas  troops  as  our  guests. 

Our  men  move  in  thousands  to  and  from  the 
front,  going  and  on  leave,  moving  from  one  camp 
to  another,  and  Victoria  Station,  Charing  Cross 
and  Waterloo  are  names  written  deep  in  our 


78  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

hearts  these  days.  We  have  free  buffets  for  our 
fighting  men  at  all  of  these,  and  at  all  our 
London  stations  and  ports,  and  these  are  open 
night  and  day.  All  the  money  needed  is  found 
by  voluntary  subscriptions. 

Our  men  come  in  on  the  leave  train  straight 
from  the  trenches,  loaded  up  with  equipment, 
with  their  rifles  canvas-covered  to  keep  them  dry 
and  clean,  with  Flanders  mud  caked  upon  them 
to  the  waist,  very  tired,  with  that  look  they  all 
bring  home  from  the  trenches  in  their  eyes,  but 
in  Blighty  and  trying  to  forget  how  soon  they 
have  to  go  back.  The  buffets  are  there  for  them, 
and  those  who  have  no  one  to  meet  them  in  Lon- 
don and  who  have  to  travel  north  or  west  or  east 
to  go  home,  are  met  by  men  and  women  who  direct 
them  where  to  go  by  day  and  motor  them  across 
London  to  their  station  at  night.  The  leave 
trains  that  get  in  on  Sunday  morning  brings  Scot- 
tish soldiers  that  cannot  leave  till  evening,  and 
St.  Columba's,  Church  of  Scotland,  has  stepped 
into  the  breach.  The  women  meet  the  train, 
carry  off  the  soldier  for  breakfast  in  the  Hall, 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    79 

which  is  ready,  and  they  entertain  them  all  day. 
Thousands  have  been  entertained  in  this  way,  and 
"It's  just  home,"  said  one  Gordon  Highlander. 

The  soldier  is  in  France  and  there  he  finds  we 
have  sent  him  Blighty,  too — canteens  and  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  Huts.  Our  books  and  our  magazines, 
everything  we  can  think  of  and  send,  goes  to 
every  field  of  war. 

He  is  followed  where  he  can  be  by  amusement 
and  entertainment.  Concert  parties  are  ar- 
ranged by  our  actors  and  actresses,  and  they  go 
out  and  sing  and  act  and  amuse  our  men  behind 
the  lines.  Lena  Ashwell  has  organized  Concert 
parties  and  done  a  great  work  in  this  way. 

Such  work  as  Miss  McNaughton's,  recorded  in 
her  "Diary  of  the  War,"  and  for  which  she  was 
decorated  before  her  death,  largely  caused  by 
overwork,  as  Lady  Dorothie  Fielding's  ambu- 
lance work,  for  which  she  also  was  decorated, 
and  the  work  of  the  "Women  of  Pervyse"  stand 
out,  even  among  the  wonderful  things  done  by 
individual  women  in  this  war. 

The  "Women  of  Pervyse,"  Mrs.  Knocker,  now 


80  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

the  Baronnes  de  T'Serclas,  and  Miss  Mairi  Chis- 
holm,  went  out  with  the  Field  Ambulance  Com- 
mittee, and  were  quartered  with  others  at  Ghent 
before  and  during  and  after  the  siege  of  Ant- 
werp. When  the  ambulance  trains  started  to 
come  in  from  Antwerp  they  worked  day  and 
night  moving  the  wounded  from  the  station  to 
the  hospitals — they  worked  for  hours  under  fire 
moving  wounded,  unperturbed  and  unshaken. 

After  the  battle  of  Dixmude  and  the  armies 
had  settled  on  the  Neuport-Ypres  line,  Mrs. 
Knocker  started  the  Pervyse  Poste  de  Secours 
Anglis,  a  dressing  station  so  close  to  the  firing 
line  that  the  wounded  could  literally  be  lifted  to 
it  from  the  trenches. 

There  they  have  worked  and  cared  for  the  men 
in  conditions  almost  incredible.  In  February, 
1915,  they  were  decorated  by  King  Albert,  and 
since  March  they  have  been  permanently  at- 
tached to  the  Third  Division  of  the  Belgian 
Army. 

In  June,  1915,  they  were  mentioned  in  dis- 
patches for  saving  life  under  heavy  fire.  They 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    81 

have  saved  hundreds  of  lives  by  being  where  they 
can  render  aid  so  swiftly,  and  the  military  author- 
ities do  not  move  them,  not  only  because  they 
wish  to  pay  tribute  to  their  valor  but  because 
they  are  so  valuable. 

Most  of  all,  "Blighty"  goes  to  the  soldier  in  his 
letters  and  there  is  nothing  so  dear  to  the  soldier 
as  his  letters,  and  nothing  is  worse  than  to  have 
"no  mail."  The  woman  who  does  not  write,  and 
the  woman  who  writes  the  wrong  things,  are 
equally  poor  things.  The  woman  who  wants  to 
help  her  man  sends  him  bright  cheerful  letters, 
not  letters  about  difficulties  he  can't  help,  and 
that  will  only  worry  him,  but  letters  with  all  the 
news  he  would  like  to  have,  and  the  messages 
that  count  for  so  much.  Every  woman  who 
writes  to  a  soldier  has  in  that  an  influence  and 
a  power  worthy  of  all  her  best.  Not  only  our 
letters  but  our  thoughts  and  our  prayers  are 
a  wall  of  strength  to,  and  behind  our  men. 

In  this  war  some  have  talked  of  spiritual 
manifestations  that  saved  disaster  in  our  great 
retreat.  In  that  people  may  believe  or  disbelieve, 

6 


82  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

but  no  person  of  intelligence  fails  to  realize  the 
power  of  thought,  and  love,  and  hope,  and  the 
spirit  of  women  can  be  a  great  power  to  their 
men  in  arms.  There  are  so  many  ways  of  giving 
and  sending  that  none  of  us  need  to  fail. 

Tben  he  is  in  it — in  the  trenches — over  the  top 
— and  he  may  be  safe  or  he  may  be  wounded — a 
"Blighty  one,"  as  our  men  say,  and  we  get  him 
home  to  nurse  and  care  for — or  he  may  make 
the  supreme  sacrifice  and  only  the  message  goes 
home. 

To  everyone  it  must  go  with  something  of  the 
consolation  of  the  poem  written  by  Rifleman  S. 
Donald  Cox  of  the  London  Rifle  Brigade. 

"To  My  Mother— 1916 

If  I  should  fall,  grieve  not  that  one  so  weak 

And  poor  as  I 

Should  die. 

Nay,  though  thy  heart  should  break, 
Think  only  this :   that  when  at  dusk  they  speak 

Of  sons  and  brothers  of  another  one, 

Then  thou  canst  say,  'I,  too,  had  a  son, 
He  died  for  England's  sake/  " 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    83 

He  may  be  a  prisoner  and  then  we  follow  him 
again.  There  are  over  40,000  of  our  men  pris- 
oners and  we  have  over  200,000  of  the  enemy. 
The  treatment  and  conditions  of  our  prisoners 
in  Germany  were  sometimes  terrible — the  hor- 
rors of  Wittenberg  we  can  never  forget,  and  we 
are  deeply  indebted  to  the  American  Red  Cross, 
for  all  it  did  before  America's  entry  into  the  war, 
for  our  prisoners. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  war  we  have  had  to 
feed  our  prisoners,  and  for  the  first  two  years 
parcels  of  food  went  from  mothers,  sisters  and 
relatives  of  the  men.  Regimental  Funds  were 
raised  and  parcels  sent  through  these.  Girls' 
Clubs  and  the  League  of  Honour  and  Churches 
and  groups  of  many  kinds  sent  also.  The  Savoy 
Association  had  a  large  fund  and  did  a  great 
work. 

Parcels,  which  must  weigh  under  eleven 
pounds,  go  free  to  prisoners  of  war  and  there  are 


84  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

some  regulations  about  what  may  be  sent.  Now 
the  whole  work  is  regulated  by  the  Prisoners  of 
War  Help  Committee — an  official  committee, 
and  parcels  are  sent  out  under  their  supervision 
to  every  man  in  captivity. 

Books,  games  and  clothing  also  go  out  from 
us.  In  most  of  the  Camps  and  at  Ruhleben, 
where  our  civilians  are  interned,  studies  are  car- 
ried on,  and  classes  of  instruction,  and  technical 
and  educative  books  are  much  needed  and  de- 
manded. Schools  and  colleges  have  sent  out 
large  supplies  of  these. 

We  have  also  raised  funds  for  the  Belgian 
Prisoners  of  War  in  Germany. 

We  have  exchanged  prisoners  with  Germany 
and  have  secured  the  release  and  internment  in 
Switzerland  of  some  hundreds  of  our  worst 
wounded,  and  permanently  disabled,  and  tuber- 
cular and  consumptive  men.  In  Switzerland, 
among  the  beautiful  mountains,  they  are  finding 
happiness  and  health  again  and  many  of  them 
are  working  at  new  trades  and  training. 

We  sent  out  their  wives  to  see  them  and  some 


"BRINGING  'BLIGHTY'  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    85 

girls  went  to  marry  their  released  men.  Some 
of  our  prisoners  have  escaped  from  Germany 
and  reached  us  safely  after  many  risks  and 
adventures. 

"Blighty"  goes  out  to  our  men  also  in  our 
Chaplains,  the  "Padres"  of  our  forces,  and  many 
times  soldiers  have  talked  to  me  of  their  splendid 
"Padre"  in  Gallipoli,  or  France  or  Egypt.  They 
have  died  with  the  men,  bringing  water  and  help 
and  trying  to  bring  in  the  wounded.  They  have 
been  decorated  with  the  V.  C.,  our  highest 
honor,  the  simple  bronze  cross  given  "For 
Valour."  They  write  home  to  mothers  and  wives 
and  relatives  of  the  men  who  fall,  and  send  last 
messages  and  words  of  consolation. 

Their  task  is  a  great  one,  for  to  men  who  face 
death  all  the  time,  and  see  their  dearest  friends 
killed  beside  them,  things  eternal  are  living  real- 
ities and  there  are  questions  for  which  they  want 
answers.  There  is  so  much  the  Padre  has  to 
give  and  his  messages  are  listened  to  in  a  new 
way  and  words  are  winged  and  living  where  these 
men  are. 


86  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

We  have  so  many  of  our  men  from  overseas 
among  us  who  are  far  from  their  own  homes,  and 
in  London  we  have  Clubs  for  the  Canadians,  the 
Australians,  the  New  Zealanders,  for  the  two 
together,  immortally  to  be  known  as  the  "An- 
zacs,"  and  for  the  South  Africans,  where  they 
can  all  find  a  bit  of  home.  We  have  also  just 
opened  American  Huts  and  the  beautiful  officers- 
Club  at  Lord  Leconfield's  house,  lent  for  the 
purpose. 

For  the  permanently  disabled  soldier  we  are 
doing  a  great  deal.  St.  Dunstan's,  the  wonderful 
training  school  for  the  blind,  has  been  the  very 
special  work  of  Sir  Arthur  Pearson,  who  is  him- 
self blind,  and  Lady  Pearson. 

The  Lord  Roberts  Workshops  for  the  disabled 
axe  doing  splendid  work  in  training  and  bringing 
hope  to  seriously  crippled  men. 

The  British  Women's  Hospital  for  which  our 
women  have  raised  $500,000,  is  on  the  site  of 
the  old  Star  and  Garter  Hotel  at  Richmond,  and 
is  to  be  for  permantly  disabled  men. 


"BRINGING  <BLIGHTY>  TO  THE  SOLDIER"    87 

There,  overlooking  our  beautiful  river,  men 
who  have  been  broken  in  the  wars  for  us,  may 
find  a  permanent  home  in  this  monument  of  our 
women's  love  and  gratitude. 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER 


"She  seeketh  wool,  and  flax,  and  worketh  will- 
ingly with  her  hands. 

She  is  like  the  merchant's  ships ;  she  bringeth  her 
food  from  afar. 

•  •  •  •  • 

"She    girdeth    her    loins    with    strength,    and 
strengthened  her  arms. 

"Strength  and  honour  are  her  clothing;  and  she 
shall  rejoice  in  time  to  come." 

— PROV.,  Chap.  31. 


CHAPTER  V 

WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER 

THE  first  result  of  the  outbreak  of  war  for 
women  was  to  throw  thousands  of  them 
out  of  work. 

Nobody  knew — not  even  the  ablest  financial 
and  commercial  men — just  what  a  great  Euro- 
pean war  was  going  to  mean,  and  luxury  trades 
ceased  to  get  orders;  women  journalists,  women 
writers,  women  lecturers,  and  women  workers  of 
every  type  were  thrown  out  of  work  and  unem- 
ployment was  very  great. 

A  National  Belief  Fund  was  started  for  gen- 
eral distress  and  the  Queen  dealt  in  the  ablest 
manner  with  the  women's  problem.  She  issued 
this  appeal :  "In  the  firm  belief  that  prevention 
of  distress  is  better  than  its  relief,  and  employ- 
ment is  better  than  charity,  I  have  inaugurated 
the  'Queen's  Work  for  Women  Fund.'  Its  object 
is  to  provide  employment  for  as  many  as  pos- 
sible of  the  women  of  this  country  who  have  been 


92  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

thrown  out  of  work  by  the  war.  I  appeal  to  the 
women  of  Great  Britain  to  help  their  less  for- 
tunate sisters  through  the  fund. 

"MARY   R." 

This  appeal  was  instantly  responded  to  and 
large  sums  were  subscribed.  A  very  representa- 
tive Committee  of  Women  was  established,  with 
Miss  Mary  MacArthur,  the  well  known  Trade 
Union  leader,  as  Hon.  Secretary  and  the  Queen 
was  in  daily  touch  with  its  work. 

In  the  dislocation  of  industry  which  had 
caused  the  committee's  formation,  it  was  found 
that  there  was  great  slackness  in  one  trade  or  a 
part  of  it  and  great  pressure  in  other  parts  of  it 
or  other  trades.  The  problem  was  to  use  the 
unemployed  firms  and  workers  for  the  new 
national  needs. 

The  committee  considered  it  part  of  their  work 
to  endeavor  to  increase  the  number  of  firms 
getting  Government  contracts,  and  they  created 
a  special  Contracts  Department,  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  J.  J.  Mallon,  of  the  Anti-sweating 
League.  They,  as  a  result,  advised  in  regard  to 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER  93 

the  placing  of  contracts  and  they  undertook  to 
get  articles  for  the  Government,  or  ordered  by 
other  sources,  manufactured  by  firms  adversely 
affected  by  the  war  or  in  their  own  workrooms. 
They  worked  with  the  firms  accustomed  to 
making  men's  clothing  and  now  unemployed,  and 
found  that  they  could  easily  take  military  con- 
tracts if  certain  technical  difficulties  were 
removed.  They  interviewed  the  War  Office  au- 
thorities, modifications  were  suggested  and  ap- 
proved and  the  full  employment  in  the  tailoring 
trade  which  followed  gave  a  greatly  improved 
supply  of  army  clothing.  Contracts  were  secured 
from  the  war  office  for  khaki  cloth,  blankets,  and 
various  kinds  of  hosiery,  and  these  were  carried 
out  by  manufacturers  who  otherwise  would  have 
had  to  close  down. 

The  Queen  gave  orders  for  her  own  gifts  to 
the  troops,  and  considerable  work  was  done 
through  trade  workshops,  care  being  taken  to 
see  that  this  work  was  only  done  where  ordinary 
trade  was  fully  employed.  Two  contracts  from 
the  War  Office,  typical  of  others,  were  for  20,000 


94  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

shirts  and  for  2,000,000  pairs  of  army  socks. 
Over  130  firms  received  contracts  through  the 
committee. 

New  openings  for  trades  were  tested  and  the 
possibility  of  the  transference  of  work  formerly 
done  in  Germany. 

In  its  Relief  Work  the  committee  had  its 
greatest  problems.  It  was  clear  that  if  rates  paid 
were  high,  women  would  come  in  from  badly 
paid  trades,  and  it  was  clear  that  if  they  sold 
the  work,  it  would  injure  trade — so  in  the  end 
it  was  decided  to  pay  a  low  wage,  11/6  a  week— 
and  to  give  away,  through  the  right  agencies,  the 
garments  and  things  made  in  the  workrooms. 

The  inefficiency  of  many  workers  was  very 
clear  and  training  schemes  resulted — for  typing, 
shorthand,  in  leather  work,  chair  seat  willowing, 
in  cookery,  dressmaking  and  dress-cutting,  home 
nursing,  etc. 

Professional  women  were  helped  through  var- 
ious funds  and  workrooms  were  established  by 
other  organizations,  several  being  started  in 
London  by  the  N.  U.  W.  S.  S. 


CLEANING  A  LOCOMOTIVE 


WOMEN  As  CARRIAGE  CLEANERS 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER 


95 


As  the  months  went  on  women  began  to  be 
absorbed  more  and  more  into  industry.  Men 
were  going  into  the  army  ceaselessly,  our  war 
needs  were  growing  greater  and  our  women 
found  work  opening  out  more  and  more.  The 
Women's  Service  Bureau  had  been  opened  within 
a  week  of  the  outbreak  of  war  and  had  done 
valuable  work  in  placing  women,  before  the 
Board  of  Trade  issued  its  first  official  appeal  to 
women,  additional  to  those  already  in  industry, 
to  volunteer  for  War  Service.  It  was  sent  out 
by  Mr.  Runciman,  President  of  the  Board  of 
Trade,  and  read  as  follows: 

The  President  of  the  Board  of  Trade 
wishes  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  in 
the  present  emergency,  if  the  full  fighting 
power  of  the  nation  is  to  be  put  forth  on  the 
field  of  battle,  the  full  working  power  of 
the  nation  must  be  made  available  to  carry 
on  its  essential  trades  at  home.  Already, 
in  certain  important  occupations  there  are 
not  enough  men  and  women  to  do  the  work. 


96  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

This  shortage  will  certainly  spread  to  other 
occupations  as  more  and  more  men  join  the 
fighting  forces. 

In  order  to  meet  both  the  present  and  the 
future  needs  of  national  industry  during  the 
war,  the  Government  wish  to  obtain  partic- 
ulars of  the  women  available,  with  or  with- 
out previous  training,  for  paid  employment. 
Accordingly,  they  invite  all  women  who  are 
prepared,  if  needed,  to  take  paid  employ- 
ment of  any  kind — industrial,  agricultural, 
clerical,  etc. — to  enter  themselves  upon  the 
Register  of  Women  for  War  Service  which 
is  being  prepared  by  the  Board  of  Trade 
Labour  Exchanges. 

Any  woman  living  in  a  town  where  there 
is  a  Labour  Exchange  can  register  by  going 
there  in  person.  If  she  is  not  near  a  Labour 
Exchange  she  can  get  a  form  of  registration 
from  the  local  agency  of  the  Unemployment 
Fund.  Forms  will  also  be  sent  out  through 
a  number  of  women's  societies. 

The  object  of  registration  is  to  find  out 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER  97 

what  reserve  force  of  women's  labour,  trained 
or  untrained,  can  be  made  available  if  re- 
quired. As  from  time  to  time  actual  open 
ings  for  employment  present  themselves, 
notice  will  be  given  through  the  Labor  Ex- 
changes, with  full  details  as  to  the  nature 
of  work,  conditions,  and  pay,  and,  so  far  as 
special  training  is  necessary,  arrangements 
will,  if  possible,  be  made  for  the  purpose. 

Any  woman  who  by  working  helps  to  re- 
lease a  man  or  to  equip  a  man  for  fighting 
does  national  war  service.  Every  woman 
should  register  who  is  able  and  willing  to 
take  employment. 

The  forms  were  sent  out  in  large  numbers 
through  the  women's  societies  of  the  country, 
and  it  was  stated  on  them  that  women  were 
wanted  at  once  for  farm-wrork,  dairy  work,  brush- 
making,  leather  stitching,  clothing,  machinery 
and  machining  for  armaments. 

By  next  day  the  registrations  were  4,000, 
mostly  middle-class  women,  and  in  the  first  week 
7 


98  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

20,000  registered  and  an  average  of  5,000  a  week 
after,  but  the  mass  of  women  who  registered 
waited  with  no  real  lead  or  use  of  them  for  a 
long  time.  The  Government  seemed  to  suffer 
from  a  delusion  a  great  many  people  have,  that 
if  you  have  enough  machinery  and  masses  of 
names  something  is  being  done,  but  you  do  not 
solve  any  problem  by  registers.  You  solve  it  by 
getting  the  workers  and  the  work  together. 

The  Government  had  not  approached  em- 
ployers at  first,  but  had  left  it  to  them  entirely 
to  take  the  initiative  in  this  great  replacement. 
This  they  had  to  a  considerable  extent  done, 
using  the  Labour  Exchanges  and  the  other 
agencies  and  women  were  more  and  more 
quickly,  steadily,  ceaselessly  replacing  men. 

The  appeals  for  women  for  munition  work 
were  most  swiftly  responded  to  and  educated 
women  volunteered  in  thousands,  as  did  working 
girls  and  women. 

The  question  of  assisting  employment  by  fit- 
ting more  women  for  commercial  and  industrial 
occupations  was  considered  by  the  Government, 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER          99 

and  in  October,  1915,  the  Clerical  and  Com- 
mercial Occupations  Committee  was  appointed 
by  the  Home  Office — a  similar  committee  being 
set  up  for  Scotland.  It  arranged  with  the 
London  County  Council  and  with  local  author- 
ities that  their  Education  Committees  should 
initiate  emergency  courses  all  over  the  country 
for  training  in  general  clerical  work,  bookkeep- 
ing and  office  routine.  The  courses  lasted  from 
three  to  ten  weeks,  and  the  age  of  the  students 
varied  from  eighteen  to  thirty-five. 

Many  free  courses  were  inaugurated  by  busi- 
ness firms  in  large  London  stores,  notably 
Harrods  and  Whiteleys,  where  their  courses  in- 
cluded all  office  and  business  training.  Six  week 
courses  of  free  training  for  the  grocery  trade,  for 
the  boot  trade,  lens  making,  waiting,  hairdress- 
ing,  etc.,  were  also  given. 

Our  woman  labor  has  been  found  to  be  quite 
mobile  and  girls  have  moved  in  thousands  from 
one  part  of  the  country  to  another,  and  the  muni- 
tion girl  travelling  home  on  holiday  on  her 
special  permit  is  a  familiar  figure. 


100  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  registration,  placing  and  moving  of  our 
workers  is  all  done  by  our  Labour  Exchanges, 
now  renamed  Employment  Exchanges  and  trans- 
ferred from  the  Board  of  Trade  to  the  Ministry 
of  Labour. 

When  the  National  Service  Department  was 
set  up,  a  Women's  Branch  was  established  with 
Mrs.  H.  J.  Tennant,  and  Miss  Violet  Markham 
as  Co-directors,  and  with  Lady  Mackworth,  who 
is  now  head  of  Women's  Recruiting  Department, 
which  co-ordinates  all  appeals  and  the  placing 
of  women  in  Waacs,  in  munitions,  on  the  land, 
etc.,  as  Controller  for  Wales,  and  they  made 
various  appeals,  registered  women  for  the  land, 
munitions,  W.  A.  A.  C.  and  for  wood  cutting 
and  pitprop  making.  A  great  demonstration 
of  "Women's  Service"  was  held  in  the  Albert 
Hall  on  January  17,  1917,  at  which  Mrs. 
Tennant  and  Miss  Markham,  Lord  Derby, 
Minister  of  War;  Mr.  Prothero,  President 
of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  and  Mr.  John 
Hodge,  Minister  of  Labour,  spoke  and  at 
which  the  Queen  was  present.  It  was  an  appeal 
to  women  for  more  work  and  a  registration  of 


WOMAN-POWER*  FOR  MAN-POWER         101 

their  determination  to  go  on  doing  all  that  was 
needed.  The  men's  message  was  one  to  equals— 
they  asked  great  things.  A  message  from  Queen 
Mary  was  read  for  the  first  time  at  any  public 
meeting  and  it  was  the  only  occasion  on  which 
she  has  attended  one. 

The  number  of  women  now  in  our  industry 
directly  replacing  men,  according  to  our  latest 
returns,  is  over  one  and  a  quarter  millions.  This 
does  not  include  domestic  service,  where  our 
maids  grow  less  and  less  numerous  and  Sir 
Auckland  Geddes,  Director  of  National  Service, 
tells  us  he  is  considering  cutting  down  servants 
in  any  establishment  to  not  more  than  three,  and 
it  does  not  include  very  small  shops  and  firms. 

The  processes  in  industry  in  which  women 
work  are  numbered  in  hundreds.  The  War 
Office  in  1916  issued  an  official  memorandum  for 
the  use  of  Military  Representatives  and  Trib- 
unals setting  forth  the  processes  in  which  women 
worked  and  the  trades  and  occupations,  and 
giving  photographs  of  women  doing  unaccus- 
tomed and  heavy  work,  to  guide  the  Tribunals  in 


102  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

deciding  exemptions  of  men  called  up  for  Mili- 
tary Service. 

In  professional  work  today  women  are  every- 
where. There  are  198,000  women  in  Government 
Departments,  83,000  of  these  new  since  the  war. 
They  are  doing  typing,  shorthand,  and  secretarial 
work,  organizing  and  executive  work.  They 
are  in  the  Censor's  office  in  large  numbers  and 
doing  important  work  at  the  Census  of  Produc- 
tion. There  are  146,000  on  Local  Government 
work.  The  woman  teacher  has  invaded  that 
stronghold  of  man  in  England,  the  Boys'  High 
and  Grammar  Schools,  and  is  doing  good  work 
there.  They  are  replacing  men  chemists  in 
works,  doing  research,  working  at  dental  me- 
chanics, are  tracing  plans.  They  are  driving 
motor  cars  in  large  numbers.  Our  Prime  Min- 
ister has  a  woman  chauffeur.  They  are  driving 
delivery  vans  and  bringing  us  our  goods,  our 
bread  and  our  milk.  They  carry  a  great  part  of 
our  mail  and  trudge  through  villages  and  cities 
with  it.  They  drive  our  mail  vans,  and  I  know 
two  daughters  of  a  peer  who  drive  mail  vans  in 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER         103 

London.  I  know  other  women  who  never  did 
any  work  in  their  lives  who  for  three  years  have 
worked  in  factories,  taking  the  same  work,  the 
same  holidays,  the  same  pay  as  the  other  girls. 
Women  are  gardeners,  elevator  attendants,  com- 
missionaires and  conductors  on  our  buses  and 
trams,  and  in  provincial  towns  drive  many  of 
the  electric  trams. 

In  the  railways  they  are  booking  clerks,  car- 
riage and  engine  cleaners  and  greasers,  and  car- 
riage repairers,  cooks  and  waiters  in  dining  cars, 
platform,  parcel  and  goods  porters,  telegraphists 
and  ticket  collectors  and  inspectors,  and  la- 
bourers and  wagon  sheet  repairers.  They  work 
in  quarries,  are  coal  workers,  clean  ships,  are 
park-keepers  and  cinema  operators.  They  are 
commercial  travellers  in  large  numbers.  They 
are  in  banks  to  a  great  extent  and  are  now  taking 
banking  examinations. 

There  was  a  very  strong  feeling  as  the  replace- 
ment by  women  went  on  that  there  must  be  no 
lowering  of  wage  standards  which  would  not 
only  be  grossly  unfair  to  women  but  imperil  the 


104  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

returning  soldier's  chance  of  getting  his  post 
back. 

Mrs.  Fawcett,  on  behalf  of  the  Women's  In- 
terests Committee  of  the  N.  U.  W.  S.  S.,  called 
a  conference  on  the  question  of  War  Service  and 
wages  in  1915,  and  Mr.  Runciman  stated  at  the 
conference  : 

As  regards  the  wages  and  conditions  on 
which  women  should  be  employed,  as  a  gen- 
eral principle  the  Exchanges  did  not,  and 
could  not,  take  direct  responsibility  as  to 
the  wages  and  conditions,  beyond  giving  in 
each  case  such  information  as  was  in  their 
possession.  In  regard,  however,  to  Govern- 
ment contractors,  it  had  been  laid  down  that 
the  piece  rates  for  women  should  be  the 
same  as  for  men,  and  further  special  in- 
structions had  been  given  to  the  Exchanges 
to  inform  inexperienced  applicants  of  the 
current  wages  in  each  case,  so  that  they 
should  be  fully  apprised  as  to  the  wage 
which  it  was  reasonable  for  them  to  ask. 


WOMAN-POWER  FOR  MAN-POWER         105 

A  general  safeguard  against  permanent 
lowering  of  wages  by  the  admission  of 
women  to  take  the  place  of  men  on  service 
would  be  made  by  asking  employers,  so  far 
as  possible,  to  keep  the  men's  places  open 
for  them  on  their  return. 

Wages  in  most  cases  are  at  the  same  rate  as 
men,  and  as  women  are  organized  in  Britain  in 
large  numbers,  the  Trades  Unions  and  Women's 
Committees  are  always  alive  and  ready  to  act 
on  the  question  of  payment  and  conditions.  Our 
workers,  men  and  women,  are  very  well  paid 
and  despite  high  prices,  were  never  more  com- 
fortable, and  never  saved  more.  The  call  for 
women  to  replace  men  still  goes  on  in  Britain. 
Miners  are  going  to  be  combed  out  again.  The 
Trade  Unions  have  been  again  approached  by 
the  Premier  and  Sir  Auckland  Geddes  on  this 
question  of  man  power.  The  Battalions  must  be 
filled  up — in  France  we  need  2,000,000  men  all 
the  time  and  of  these  1,670,000  are  from  our 
own  Islands. 


106  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

It  is  calculated  there  are  in  Britain  today- 
Ireland  is  not  tapped  in  woman  power  any  more 
than  in  man  power — less  than  a  million  women 
who  could  do  more  important  work  for  the  war 
than  they  are  now  doing.  Most  of  these  are  al- 
ready doing  work  of  one  kind  or  another,  but 

could  probably  do  more. 

,- 

Our  homes,  our  industries,  munitions,  the  land, 
/^  hospitals,  Government  service  and  the  Waac's 
are  absorbing  us  in  our  millions.  Britain  could 
not  have  raised  her  Army  and  Navy  and  could 
not  now  keep  her  men  in  the  field  without  the 
mobilization  of  her  women  and  their  ceaseless, 
tireless  work  behind  her  men,  and  as  substitutes 
for  them,  in  the  working  life  of  the  community. 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS 

"For  all  we  have  and  are, 

For  all  our  children's  fate- 
Rise  up  and  meet  the  war, 
The  Hun  is  at  the  gate. 

"Comfort,  content,  delight, 

The  ages'  slow-bought  gain, 
Have  shrivelled  in  a  night, 
Only  ourselves  remain. 

"Though  all  we  knew  depart, 

The  old  commandments  stand, 
In  courage  keep  your  heart, 
In  strength  lift  up  your  hand." 

— RUDYARD  KIPLING. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS 

"Hats  off  to  the  Women  of  Britain !"— Sir  ARTHUR 
CONAN  DOYLE  in  The  Times,  November  28,  1916. 

WHEN  war  broke  out  the  Government  had 
three  National  workshops  producing  mu- 
nitions— today  it  has  100,  and  it  controls 
over  5,000  establishments  through  the  Ministry 
of  Munitions,  many  of  which  are  continually 
growing  in  size. 

The  total  output  has  increased  over  thirty- 
fold  but  in  many  cases  increase  in  production 
has  been  far  greater.  In  guns,  the  production 
of  4.5  field  howitzers  is  over  fifty  times  as  large ; 
of  machine  guns  and  howitzers  over  seventy 
times  and  of  heavy  howitzers  (over  6  inch)  over 
420  times  as  large. 

More  small  shell  is  now  made  in  a  fortnight 
than  formerly  in  a  year,  and  the  increase  in 
output  of  heavy  shell  has  been  still  larger. 
Equally  striking  results  have  been  attained  in 


110  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

the  production  of  machine  guns,  aeroplanes, 
motor  bodies,  and  the  other  war  supplies,  for 
which  demand  and  replacement  have  necessarily 
grown  with  the  demand  for  guns  and  shells.  To 
these  have  to  be  added  the  ships  and  the  anti- 
submarine and  anti-aircraft  machines  and  de- 
vices that  have  been  demanded  by  the  enemy's 
method  of  warfare. 

This  work  has  only  been  possible  in  a  country 
that  has  raised  seven  million  men,  75  per  cent 
from  our  own  islands,  because  of  what  women 
have  done. 

Today  there  are  between  800,000  and  1,000,000 
women  in  munitions  works  in  our  country,  and 
the  history  of  their  entry  and  work  is  a  wonder- 
ful one.  Women  themselves  were  quicker  than 
the  Government  to  realize  how  much  they  would 
be  needed  in  munitions,  and  started  to  train 
before  openings  were  ready. 

Women  realized  vividly  what  Lloyd  George's 
speech  of  June,  1915,  made  clear,  the  urgent, 
terrible  need  of  our  men  for  more  munitions— 
the  Germans  could  send  over  ten  shells  to  our 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  111 

one — and  women  volunteered  in  thousands  for 
munition  work. 

The  London  Society  for  Women's  Suffrage, 
which  was  running  "Women's  Service,"  had 
women  volunteers  for  munitions  in  enormous 
numbers  and  tried  to  secure  openings  for  them. 
It  investigated  and  found  that  acetylene  welders 
were  badly  needed.  There  were  very  few  in  Brit- 
ain, and  welding  is  essential  for  aircraft  and 
other  work,  so  they  started  to  find  out  if  there 
were  classes  for  training  women,  and  found  none 
in  Technical  Schools  were  open  to  women.  They 
found  welders  were  needed  very  much  in  certain 
aircraft  factories  in  the  neighborhood  of  London 
and  the  manager  of  one  assured  them  that  if 
women  were  trained  satisfactorily  for  oxy- 
acetylene  welding,  he  would  give  them  a  trial. 
So  "Women's  Service"  decided  to  open  a  small 
workshop  and  secured  Miss  E.  C.  Woodward,  a 
metal  worker  of  long  standing,  as  instructor. 
The  school  was  started  in  a  small  way  with  six 
pupils.  Oxy-acetylene  welding  is  the  most  ef- 


112  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

fective  way  of  securing  a  perfect  weld  without 
any  deleterious  effect  upon  the  metal. 

The  great  heat  needed  for  the  purpose  of 
uniting  two  or  more  pieces  of  metal  so  as  to 
make  of  them  an  autogenous  whole  is  obtained, 
in  this  process,  by  the  burning  of  acetylene  gas 
in  conjunction  with  oxygen. 

Carbide,  looking  like  little  lumps  of  granite,  is 
placed  in  a  tray  at  the  bottom  of  the  generator 
for  acetylene  gas,  which  is  of  the  form  of  a  small 
portable  gasometer.  The  tap,  admitting  water 
to  the  carbide  trays,  is  turned  on,  and  gas  at 
once  generates,  and  forces  up  the  generator  in 
the  way  so  familiar  to  those  who  often  see  a 
gasometer.  This  gas  passes  through  a  tube  to 
the  blow-pipe  of  the  welder,  or  to  any  other  use 
for  which  it  is  destined. 

In  oxy-acetylene  welding,  the  process  employs 
the  flame  produced  by  the  combustion  in  a  suit- 
able blow-pipe  of  oxygen  and  acetylene.  When  a 
light  is  applied  to  the  nozzle  of  the  pipe  a  yellow 
flame,  a  foot  long,  flares  up,  and  in  the  centre  of 
it,  close  to  the  nozzle,  appears  a  very  small, 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  113 

dazzling,  bluish  flame,  which  can  only  safely  be 
gazed  upon  by  eyes  protected  by  coloured  glasses. 
The  temperature  of  this  flame  at  the  apex  is 
about  6,300  degrees  Fahr.,  and  it  is  with  this 
that  the  metals  to  be  welded  together  are  brought 
to  a  suitable  degree  of  heat. 

The  workers'  eyes  are  protected  by  black 
goggles,  their  hair  confined  by  caps  or  handker- 
chiefs, and  overalls  or  leather-aprons  protect 
their  clothes  from  the  sparks  and  also  from  the 
smuts  which  naturally  accrue  on  surrounding 
objects.  Each  welder  holds  in  her  right  hand  the 
blow-pipe  of  the  craft,  from  which  depends  two 
long  flexible  tubes,  one  conducting  oxygen  from 
the  tall  cylinder  in  the  corner,  and  the  other 
acetylene  from  the  generator.  In  her  left  hand 
she  holds  the  welding-stick  of  soft  Swedish  iron, 
from  which  tiny  molten  drops  fall  upon  the  glow- 
ing edges  of  the  metal  to  be  welded  together. 
The  work  is  fascinating  even  to  the  onlooker,  and 
to  see  the  result,  metal  so  welded  you  feel  it  is 
impossible  it  ever  could  have  been  two  pieces,  is 
still  more  fascinating. 
8 


114  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  first  welders  triumphantly  passed  their 
tests  and  gave  every  satisfaction  in  the  factory, 
and  the  training  went  on  and  the  School  was 
enlarged. 

The  oxy-acetylene  welders  turned  out  by  this 
School  have  gone  all  over  the  country  and  220 
were  trained  and  placed  in  the  first  year.  Those 
selected  were,  with  few  exceptions,  educated 
women,  which  was  undoubtedly  a  material  factor 
in  the  success  of  their  work.  This  School  opened 
training  to  women  and  welding  is  now  taught 
to  women  in  many  of  our  Technical  Schools. 
A  class  in  Elementary  Engineering  has  also  been 
carried  on  by  Women's  Service  with  great  success 
and  the  women  placed  in  workshops. 

The  Ministry  of  Munitions  has  also  arranged, 
in  conjunction  with  the  London  County  Council 
and  other  Educational  Authorities,  to  have  free 
munition  training  for  women  at  every  centre  in 
the  Kingdom.  The  courses  vary  from  six  to  nine 
weeks  and  maintenance  grants  are  paid  during 
the  period  of  training. 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  115 

In  October,  1915,  the  Central  Labour  Supply 
Committee  which  dealt  with  women's  and  men's 
conditions,  issued  certain  recommendations  in 
Circular  L.  2.  These  dealt  with  the  conditions 
and  rates  of  pay  of  women  and  fully  skilled  and 
unskilled  men.  The  provision  of  this  much- 
discussed  circular  that  affected  women  doing 
skilled  work  was  in  Clause  1,  which  provides 
that  "Women  employed  on  work  customarily 
done  by  fully  skilled  tradesmen  shall  be  paid  the 
time  rates  of  the  tradesman  whose  work  they 
undertake." 

These  provisions  were  then  only  binding  on 
the  Government  establishments,  and  could  not  be 
enforced  by  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  in  con- 
trolled establishments.  On  December  31,  1915, 
a  conference  was  held  between  the  Prime  Min- 
ister, the  Minister  of  Munitions  and  representa- 
tives of  the  Amalgamated  Society  of  Engineers, 
when  an  agreement  in  regard  to  "dilution"  was 
arranged.  Circular  L.  2  was  adopted  at  this 
conference  as  the  basis  of  the  undertaking  given 
by  the  Ministry  in  regard  to  dilution  of  labor. 


116  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

An  employer  under  it  can  be  punished  as  con- 
travening the  Munitions  Act  if  he  fails  to  carry 
out  the  direction  of  the  Minister.  The  power  of 
enforcing  the  provisions  of  L.  2  were  acquired  in 
January,  1916,  and  it  is  quite  obvious  that  in 
this  circular  a  principle  of  the  greatest  import- 
ance to  men  and  women  is  laid  down.  Women 
were  wholly  averse  to  being  "blacklegs"  in 
industry. 

The  great  work  of  "Dilution"  in  Munitions— 
and  by  dilution  we  mean  the  use  in  industry  of 
unskilled,  semi-skilled  and  woman  labor,  so  that 
highly  skilled  men  may  not  be  used  except  for 
the  most  important  work — is  done  by  the  Dilu- 
tion Department  of  the  Ministry  of  Munitions, 
which  issues  Dilution  of  Labour  Bulletins  and 
Process  Sheets  periodically,  showing  the  work 
women  are  doing.  A  series  of  exhibitions  of 
women's  work  have  also  been  arranged  by  the 
Technical  Section  of  the  Labour  Supply  Depart- 
ment in  all  the  big  towns  in  England.  In 
Sheffield  over  16,000  people  came  to  see  the  Ex- 


RlVETTING    ON    BOILERS 


FACING  BOILER  BLUE  FLANGES 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  117 

hibition — the  largest  number  of  these  being  fore- 
men and  workmen  sent  by  their  firms. 

The  Exhibitions  consist  of  two  main  sections, 
one  of  which  shows  actual  samples  of  munitions 
made  by  women,  and  the  other  of  photographs 
of  women  doing  work  on  apparatus  or  processes 
that  could  not  be  shown.  A  complete  Clerget 
engine,  for  instance,  was  lent  by  the  Air  Board 
to  illustrate  the  final  assembly  of  the  numerous 
parts  of  these  engines  being  made  wholly  or 
partly  by  women."  In  the  same  way,  many  parts 
of  complete  Stokes  Guns,  Vickers  Machine  Guns 
and  Service  Kifles  were  exhibited.  The  exhibits 
were  divided  into  fifteen  groups.  The  first  group 
dealing  with  engines  for  aircraft.  The  second 
group  showed  engines  for  motor  cars,  tanks, 
tractors,  motor  buses,  motor  lorries  and  motor 
vehicles. 

A  separate  group  consisted  of  a  variety  of  ac- 
cessories for  internal  combustion  engines,  in- 
cluding air  pump  for  the  Clerget  engine,  which 
is  completely  manufactured  and  assembled  by 
women,  largely  under  women  supervision;  and 


118  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

magnetos,  a  very  important  and  accurate  indus- 
try, before  the  war  largely  in  German  hands,  of 
which  women  now  undertake  the  entire  manu- 
facture. 

The  fourth  group  dealt  with  steam  engines, 
including  details  of  locomotives,  high  speed 
engines,  steam  winches,  and  steam  turbines. 

The  next  two  groups  dealt  respectively  with 
guns  and  components  and  with  small  arms. 

The  next  three  groups  included  gauges,  drills, 
cutters,  punches  and  dies,  trucks,  jigs,  tap  pieces 
and  general  tool-room  work.  The  gauges  in- 
cluded plug,  ring,  cylinder  and  screw  gauges  to 
the  closest  degrees  of  accuracy,  which  in  practice 
are  verified  by  the  rigid  inspection  of  the  Na- 
tional Physical  Laboratory. 

A  fair  illustration  of  the  accuracy  that  is 
habitually  required  in  a  large  volume  of  work  is 
to  be  seen  in  the  final  gauging  and  inspection  of 
a  screw  gauge  for  a  fuse,  in  which  the  women 
inspectors  were  described  in  the  catalogue  as 
examining  these  screws  by  an  optical  projection 
apparatus,  magnifying  fifty  times,  with  the  help 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  119 

of  which  the  inspector  notes  the  defects  in  size 
and  form,  and  the  necessary  corrections. 

The  cutting  tools  included  sets  of  cutters  for 
the  manufacture  of  shells,  as  well  as  twist  drills, 
reamers,  milling  cutters,  gear  cutters,  screwing 
dies,  taps  and  lathe  tools.  Some  of  this  work  is 
of  high  accuracy,  and  a  set  of  solid  screwing  dies 
has  the  particular  interest  that  almost  all  the 
operations  are  carried  out  by  women  after  they 
have  been  in  the  shop  for  a  fortnight.  The  gen- 
eral tool-room  work  included  an  exhibit  of  sev- 
enty-one punches  and  dies  for  cartridge  making. 
Another  set  of  dies  was  shown  for  small-arms 
ammunition,  and  specimens  were  also  exhibited 
of  chucks,  die-heads  and  other  work. 

Two  other  groups  dealt  with  the  metal  fittings 
and  wooden  structural  parts  of  aircraft,  and  to 
see  girls  work  on  these  is  intensely  interesting— 
anything  more  fragile  looking  and  more  beautiful 
than  the  long  uncovered  wing  it  would  be  difficult 
to  find.  A  notable  feature  of  the  metal  group  was 
a  number  of  parts  that  are  marked  off  from  draw- 
ings by  women  working  under  a  woman  charge- 


120  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

hand,  and  themselves  making  their  own  scribing- 
templates  when  necessary.  Many  examples  of 
welding  work  were  also  shown. 

There  were  Optical  Munitions  and  medical  and 
surgical  glass  and  X-ray  tubes  made  entirely  by 
women,  and  the  Exhibitions  record  the  progress 
of  women  in  Munitions  in  the  most  wonderful 
and  striking  way. 

Mr.  Ben.  H.  Morgan,  Chief  Officer,  in  a  recent 
speech  on  Munitions  and  Production  said: 

"Labour  had  to  be  found  to  staff  the  thou- 
sands of  factories  in  which  this  stupendous 
production  was  to  be  carried  out,  and  it  has 
been  possible  to  find  it  only  by  subdividing 
work  closely,  and  entrusting  a  large  variety 
of  machinery  and  fitting  to  women,  with  the 
help  of  the  fullest  possible  equipment  of  jigs 
and  all  available  appliances  for  mechanic- 
ally defining  and  facilitating  the  work,  and 
of  instruction  by  skilled  men.  By  this  means 
an  output  has  been  obtained  that  will  com- 
pare favorably  with  that  of  any  class  of 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  121 

workers  in  any  country.  Comparing,  for 
instance,  our  women's  figures  of  output  on 
certain  sizes  of  shell  and  types  of  fuses  with 
those  of  men  in  the  United  States,  I  found 
recently  that  the  women's  machining  times 
were  not  only  as  good  but  in  many  cases 
better  than  those  of  men  in  some  of  the  best 
organized  American  shops. 

"This  is  an  extraordinary  result  to  have 
been  obtained  from  women  who,  for  the  most 
part,  had  neyer  known  either  the  work  or  the 
discipline  of  factory  life,  and  were  wholly 
unused  to  mechanical  operations.  More  than 
one  circumstance  has  doubtless  contributed 
to  making  it  possible;  but  it  is  my  assured 
conviction  that  foremost  among  the  incen- 
tives by  which  women  have  been  helped  has 
been  their  constant  thought  of  their  flesh 
and  blood,  their  husbands,  brothers,  sons, 
sweethearts,  in  the  trenches.  I  know  a  typ- 
ical example  in  a  Yorkshire  mother,  who 
early  in  the  war  sent  her  only  son  to  the 
fighting  line.  The  lad  was  a  skilled  me- 


122  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

chanic,  and  she  took  his  place  at  his  lathe 
in  the  Leeds  shops  where  he  worked.  She 
is  not  only  keeping  this  job  going,  but  her 
output  on  the  job  she  is  doing  is  a  record  for 
the  whole  country." 

The  women  workers'  productions  has  been 
admirable  and  is  steady  and  continues  so.  The 
Manchester  Guardian  of  November  15,  1915, 
astounded  women  and  men  alike  by  its  announce- 
ment that  "figures  were  produced  in  proof  of 
the  very  startling  assertion  that  the  output  of 
the  women  munition  workers  is  slightly  more 
than  double  that  of  men." 

In  the  latest  Dilution  of  Labour  Bulletin  this 
is  recorded: 

"A  GOOD  BEGINNING 

"A  firm  in  the  London  and  South  Eastern 
district  making  propellers  for  aeroplanes 
has  recently  begun  the  employment  of 
women,  and  the  results  are  exceeding  all 
expectations.  As  an  instance  it  is  reported 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  123 

that  five  women  are  now  doing  the  work  of 
scraping,  formerly  done  by  six  men,  with 
an  increase  of  70  per  cent  in  output." 
The   way   in   which   managers,    foremen   and 
skilled  men  have  trained  and  helped  the  women 
and    work    with    them    cannot    be    too    highly 
praised — the  success  of  "dilution" — the  ability 
of  women  to  help  their  country  in  this  way,  was 
only   possible   through   the   good   will   and   co- 
operation of  our  great  Trade  Unions  and  skilled 
men. 

Women  supervisors  and  examiners  are  trained 
at  Woolwich,  and  the  first  of  these  were  found 
by  "Women's  Service,"  and  we  find  women  con- 
trol and  manage  large  numbers  of  women  in  the 
big  works  extremely  well.  One  girl  of  twenty- 
three,  the  daughter  of  a  famous  engineer,  is 
controlling  the  work  of  6,000  women  who  are 
working  on  submarines,  guns,  aircraft,  and  all 
manner  of  munitions. 

One  great  engineer  who  believes  in  women  and 
women's  future  in  engineering  has  started  what 
we  might  term  an  engineering  college  for  women. 


124  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

He  has  built  a  model  factory  away  in  the  hills 
"somewhere  in  Scotland"  with  four  tiers  of 
ferro-cement  floors.  It  is  built  with  the  idea 
of  taking  300  women  students  and  eight  months 
after  it  opened,  it  had  sixty  women  students.  It 
is  a  factory  entirely  for  women,  run  by,  and  to 
a  large  extent  managed  by  women,  with  the  ex- 
ception of  two  men  instructors.  In  the  ground 
floor  the  girls  are  working  at  parts  of  high  power 
aeroplane  engines,  under  their  works  superin- 
tendent, a  woman  who  took  her  Mathematical 
Tripos  at  Newnham  College,  and  was  lecturer  at 
one  of  our  girls'  public  schools.  The  women 
rank  as  engineer  apprentices  and  their  hours 
are  forty-four  a  week.  The  first  six  months  are 
probationary  with  pay  at  20/ — (f5)  a  week,  and 
the  students  are  doing  extremely  well. 

"Women  are  now  part  and  parcel  of  our  great 
army,"  said  the  Earl  of  Derby,  on  July  13,  1916, 
"without  them  it  would  be  impossible  for  prog- 
ress to  be  made,  but  with  them  I  believe  victory 
can  be  assured." 

Mr.  Asquith,  too,  has  paid  his  tribute  to  the 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  125 

woman  munition  maker  and  to  others  who  are 
doing  men's  work.  In  a  memorable  speech  on 
the  Second  Reading  of  the  Special  Register  Bill, 
he  admitted  that  the  women  of  this  country  have 
rendered  as  effective  service  in  the  prosecution 
of  the  war  as  any  other  class  of  the  community. 
"It  is  true  they  cannot  fight  in  the  gross  ma- 
terial sense  of  going  out  with  rifles  and  so  forth, 
but  they  fill  our  munition  factories,  they  are 
doing  the  work  which  the  men  who  are  fighting 
had  to  perform  before,  they  have  taken  their 
places,  they  are  the  servants  of  the  State  and 
they  have  aided  in  the  most  effective  way  in  the 
prosecution  of  the  war." 

Our  munition  women  are  in  the  shipyards,  the 
engineering  shops,  the  aeroplane  sheds,  the  shell 
shops,  flocking  in  thousands  into  the  cities, 
leaving  homes  and  friends  to  work  in  the  muni- 
tion cities  we  have  built  since  the  war.  When 
our  great  arsenals  and  factories  empty,  women 
pour  out  in  thousands.  Night  and  day  they  have 
worked  as  the  men  have  and  it  has  been  no  easy 
or  light  task.  We  know  that  still  more  will  be 


126  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

demanded  of  us,  but  we  think,  as  our  four 
million  men  do,  that  these  things  are  well  worth 
doing  for  the  freedom  of  the  souls  of  the  nations. 

In  the  munition  factories  that  feeling  and 
conviction  burns  like  a  flame  and  the  enemy  who 
thinks  to  demoralize  our  men  and  our  women 
by  bombing  our  homes  and  our  workshops  finds 
the  workers,  men  and  women,  only  made  more 
determined. 

The  women  handle  high  explosives  in  the 
"danger  buildings"  for  ten  and  a  half  hours  in 
a  shift,  making  and  inserting  the  detonating 
fuses,  where  a  slip  may  result  in  their  own  death 
and  that  of  their  comrades.  Working  with 
T.  N.  T.  they  turn  yellow — hands  and  face  and 
hair — and  risk  poisoning.  They  are  called  the 
"canary  girls,"  and  if  you  ask  why  they  do  it 
they  will  tell  you  it  isn't  too  much  to  risk  when 
men  risk  everything  in  the  trenches — and  some- 
times the  one  they  cared  for  most  is  in  a  grave 
in  France  or  on  some  other  front, .  and  they 
"carry  on." 

The  Prime  Minister  paid  a  tribute  to  munition 


WOMEN  IN  MUNITIONS  127 

makers  in  one  of  his  speeches  when  he  said: 

"I  remember  perfectly  well  when  I  was  Min- 
ister of  Munitions  we  had  very  dangerous  work. 
It  involved  a  special  alteration  in  one  element 
of  our  shells.  We  had  to  effect  that  alteration. 
If  we  had  manufactured  the  whole  thing  anew 
it  would  have  involved  the  loss  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  of  rounds  of  ammunition  at  a  time 
when  we  could  not  afford  it.  But  the  adaptation 
of  the  old  element  with  a  fuse  is  a  very  dangerous 
operation,  and  there  were  several  fatal  accidents. 
It  was  all  amongst  the  women  workers  in  the 
munition  factories;  there  was  never  a  panic. 
They  stuck  to  their  work.  They  knew  the  peril. 
They  never  ran  away  from  it." 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN 
IN  INDUSTRY 


"Are  our  faces  grave,  and  our  eyes  intent? 
Is  every  ounce  that  is  in  us  bent 
On  the  uttermost  pitch  of  accomplishment? 
Though  it's  long  and  long  the  day  is. 
Ah !  we  know  what  it  means  if  we  fool  or  slack ; 
—A  rifle  jammed — and  one  comes  not  back; 
And  we  never  forget — it's  for  us  they  gave. 
And  so  we  will  slave,  and  slave,  and  slave, 
Lest  the  men  at  the  front  should  rue  it. 
Their  all  they  gave,  and  their  lives  we'll  save, 
If  the  hardest  of  work  can  do  it;— 
Though  it's  long  and  long  the  day  is. 

— JOHN  OXENHAM. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE  PROTECTION   OF  WOMEN 
IN   INDUSTRY 

THE  Ministry  of  Munitions  has  a  great 
department  devoted  to  the  work  of  looking 
after  our  workers'  interests. 

This  department  of  the  Ministry  was  estab- 
lished by  Mr.  Lloyd  George.  Mr.  Rowntree, 
whose  work  is  so  well  known,  was  put  in  charge. 

The  health  of  the  Munition  Workers'  Commit- 
tee was  set  up  when  the  Ministry  was  established 
with  the  concurrence  of  the  Home  Secretary, 
"To  consider  and  advise  on  questions  of  indus- 
trial fatigue,  hours  of  labor,  and  other  matters 
affecting  the  personal  health  and  physical  effi- 
ciency of  workers  in  munition  factories  and 
work  shops. 

Sir  George  Newman,  M.D.,  is  chairman  of  the 
committee  and  the  two  women  members  are  Mrs. 
H.  J.  Tennant  and  Miss  R.  E.  Squire.  Memo- 
randa on  various  industrial  problems  have  been 


132  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

drawn  up  by  the  committee  and  acted  upon — the 
first  being  on  Sunday  labour. 

In  the  early  part  of  the  war  our  men  and 
women  frequently  worked  seven  days  in  the  week 
and  shifts  were  very  long  for  women  as  for  men. 
Practically  no  holidays  were  taken  in  answer  to 
Lord  Kitchener's  appeals.  The  regulations  pre- 
venting women  from  working  on  Sunday  had 
been  removed  in  a  limited  number  of  cases.  The 
investigation  of  the  committee  in  November, 
1915,  showed  that  Sunday  labor  when  it  meant 
excessive  hours  was  bad  and  it  did  not  increase 
output,  that  the  strain  on  foremen  and  managers 
in  particular  was  very  great,  and  they  recom- 
mended a  modification  of  the  policy. 

In  a  later  Memorandum,  No.  12,  on  output  in 
relation  to  hours  of  work,  very  interesting  figures 
were  given,  practically  all  showing  increased 
output  as  a  result  of  shorter  hours  of  labor. 

The  committee  reported  in  Memorandum  No.  5 
that  it  was  of  the  opinion  that  continuous  work 
by  women  in  excess  of  the  normal  legal  limit 
of  sixty  hours  per  week  ought  to  be  discontinued 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  133 

as  soon  as  practicable,  and  that  the  shift  sys- 
tem should  be  used  instead  of  overtime. 

A  special  Memorandum,  No.  4,  was  entirely 
concerned  with  the  employment  of  women  and 
dealt  with  hours,  conditions,  rest  and  meals, 
management  and  supervision,  and  it  strongly 
urged  every  precaution  and  protection  for 
women. 

The  Welfare  Department  meantime  had 
started  on  its  work  of  securing,  training  and 
appointing  Welfare  Supervisors,  Miss  Alleyne 
looking  after  that  branch  of  the  work. 

The  Department  was  "charged  with  the  gen- 
eral responsibility  of  securing  a  high  standard 
of  conditions"  for  the  workers. 

The  growth  of  the  work  has  been  enormous. 
The  Ministry  of  Munitions  today  has  large  num- 
bers of  Welfare  Supervisors  with  every  Govern- 
ment establishment  and  the  controlled  estab- 
lishments have  them  also.  In  Government  shops 
they  are  paid  by  the  Ministry,  in  controlled 
establishments  by  the  management  and  their 


134  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

appointment  is  notified  to  the  Welfare  Depart- 
ment. 

The  Ministry  has  issued  a  leaflet  on  "Duties 
of  Welfare  Supervisors  for  Women,"  which  is 
given  at  the  end  of  this  chapter. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  Welfare  Worker  must 
be  a  rather  wonderful  person.  She  must  be 
tactful,  know  how  to  handle  girls,  and  be  a 
person  of  judgment  and  decision.  We  have  suc- 
ceeded in  securing  a  very  large  number  of  admir- 
able women  and  excellent  work  is  being  done. 
The  Welfare  Workers  are  in  their  turn  inspected 
by  Welfare  Inspectors  and  Miss  Proud,  the  Chief 
Inspector  in  dangerous  factories,  who  sees  the 
precautions  against  risk  of  poisoning  from  Tri- 
nitro-toluol,  Tertyl,  the  aeroplane  wing  dope, 
etc.,  are  all  carried  out  by  the  management,  has 
written  an  admirable  textbook  on  welfare  work. 
The  country  for  this  purpose  is  divided  into  nine 
areas,  and  two  women  inspectors  work  in  each. 

Woolwich  Arsenal  is  one  of  our  great  centres 
of  women's  work  and  the  Chief  Welfare  Super- 
visor there,  Miss  Lilian  Barker,  is  the  most 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  135 

capable  woman  supervisor  in  Britain,  a  states- 
man among  supervisors.  Any  visitor  to  the  Ar- 
senal cannot  help  being  struck  by  the  general 
impression  of  contentment,  happiness  and  health 
of  the  woman  worker  there  in  her  thousands.  It 
is  rare  to  see  a  sickly  face  among  them,  even 
among  the  girls  in  the  Danger  Zone.  Miss  Bar- 
ker is  constantly  adding  to  her  own  staff  of 
supervisors,  and  training  others  for  provincial1 
centres.  She  and  her  Assistants  interview  new 
hands  and  arrange  changes  and  transfers  of 
women.  She  enquires  into  all  complaints,  ad- 
vises as  to  clothing,  keeps  an  eye  on  the  vast 
canteen  organization  of  Woolwich,  and  initiates 
schemes  for  recreation — notices  of  whist  drives, 
dances  and  concerts  are  constantly  up  on  the 
boards.  The  housing  of  the  immigrant  workers 
—no  small  problem,  she  and  her  assistants  deal 
with.  They  suggest  improvements  in  conditions 
and  are  awake  to  signs  of  illness  or  overfatigue. 
They  follow  the  worker  home  and  look  after  the 
young  mother  and  the  sick  girl  and  women. 


136  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Hostels  have  been  built  there  and  all  over  the 
country  by  the  Government  and  by  factory  own- 
ers, and  the  Hostel  Supervisors  have  a  big  and 
useful  work  to  do. 

They  are  very  well  arranged  with  a  room  for 
each  girl  and  nice  rest  rooms,  dining  rooms  and 
good  sickroom  accommodations.  Rules  are  cut 
down  to  a  minimum.  Most  Supervisors  find  out 
ways  of  working  without  them. 

"Smoking  is  allowed  at  this  end  of  the  rest- 
room,"  said  one  Superintendent,  "but  since  we 
have  permitted  this  recreation,  it  seems  to  have 
fallen  out  of  favour,"  which  seems  to  show 
munition  girls  are  very  human. 

Hutments  have  also  been  built  for  married 
couples.  Lodgings  are  inspected  and  when  suit- 
able, scheduled  for  workers  coming  to  the  area. 
In  some  cases  the  management  in  private  fac- 
tories do  not  adopt  formal  welfare  workers  but 
get  a  woman  of  the  right  type  and  put  her  in 
charge  of  the  female  operatives,  with  generally 
excellent  results.  The  value  of  the  influence  of 
this  work  on  our  girls  cannot  be  over-estimated — 


Munition 
Moki 


Issued 
Ministry  of! 
iacon 
Factory 

of  the 
JfemeOffic* 


AN   OFFICIAL   BOOKLET  FOR   MUNITION  WORKERS 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  137 

it  is  an  influence  of  the  very  best  kind,  and  our 
experiences  in  munition  and  welfare  work,  every 
class  of  women  working  together,  is  going  to  be 
of  great  and  permanent  good. 

The  professional  woman  and  the  girls  who 
flock  to  London  in  large  numbers  for  work  in 
Government  Departments,  must  be  housed  also, 
and  there  are  many  extremely  good  Hostels. 
Bedford  House,  the  old  Bedford  College  for 
Women,  is  now  a  delightful  Hostel  run  by  the 
Y.  W.  C.  A.,  whose  work  for  munition  girls 
deserves  very  special  mention.  They  had  Hostels 
over  the  country  before  the  war  and  have  added 
to  these.  They  have  set  up  Clubs  all  over  the 
country  for  the  girls  in  munitions  and  industry 
in  150  centres,  and  these  are  very  much  appre- 
ciated and  used  by  thousands  of  girls. 

The  feeding  of  the  munition  worker  is  another 
great  piece  of  work.  It  started,  like  so  many  of 
our  things,  in  voluntary  effort.  The  conditions 
of  the  men  and  women  working  all  night  and 
without  any  possibility  of  getting  anything  warm 
to  eat  and  drink  and,  exhausted  with  their  heavy 


138  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

work,  made  people  feel  something  must  be  done, 
and  the  first  efforts  were  to  send  round  barrows 
with  hot  tea  and  coffee  and  sandwiches,  etc. 
More  and  more  it  was  realized  that  the  provision 
of  proper  meals  for  the  workers,  men  and  women, 
was  indispensable  for  the  maintenance  of  output 
on  which  our  fighting  forces  depended  for  their 
very  lives — and  the  Government,  the  Y.  M.  C.  A., 
the  Y.  W.  C.  A.  and  various  other  agencies, 
started  to  establish  canteens.  The  Y.  W.  C.  A. 
alone  in  its  canteens  serves  80,000  meals  a  week. 
Large  numbers  of  private  firms  have  established 
their  own  canteens. 

The  Health  of  Munition  Workers  Committee 
reported,  in  November,  1915,  that  it  was  ex- 
tremely desirable  to  establish  canteens  in  every 
factory  in  which  it  would  be  useful.  Many  can- 
teens existed  before  the  war,  but  they  have  been 
added  to  enormously  and  the  recommendations 
of  the  committee  as  to  accessability,  attractive- 
ness, form,  food  and  service  carried  out. 

The  Canteen  Committee  of  the  Liquor  Control 
Board  who  have  looked  after  this  work  have 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  139 

issued  an  admirable  official  pamphlet,  "Feeding 
the  Munition  Worker,"  in  which  plans  for  con- 
struction and  all  details  are  given.  An  ideal 
canteen  should  always  provide  facilities  for  the 
worker  to  heat  his  or  her  own  food. 

The  prices  are  very  reasonable,  and  in  most 
cases  only  cover  cost  of  food  and  service,  soup 
and  bread  is  4  cents — cut  from  joint  and  two 
vegetables,  12  to  16  cents. 
Puddings,  2  to  4  cents, 
Bread  and  cheese,  3  to  4  cents, 
Tea,  coffee  and  cocoa,  2  cents  a  cup, 
and  a  variety  is  arranged  in  the  week's  menu. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  Huts  are  very  popular.  In 
some  of  them  the  girls  get  dinners  for  10  cents, 
and  the  dinner  includes  joint,  vegetables  and 
pudding. 

There  are  comfortable  chairs  in  them  in  which 
girls  can  rest  and  attractive  magazines  and 
books  to  read  in  the  little  restrooms.  The 
workers  in  charge  of  these  canteens  are  edu- 
cated women  and  the  waiting  and  service  is  done 

© 

by  voluntary  helpers.     There  is  not  only  excel- 


140  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

lent  feeding  for  our  workers  in  these  canteens, 
but  there  is  great  economy  in  food  and  fuel.  To 
cook  400  dinners  together  is  much  less  wasteful 
than  to  cook  them  separately,  and  the  cooks  in 
these  are  generally  trained  economists. 

The  children,  too,  are  not  forgotten.  Our 
welfare  workers  follow  the  young  mother  home 
and  find  out  if  the  children  are  all  right  and 
well  taken  care  of.  We  have  done  even  more  in 
the  war  than  before  for  our  babies  and  the  infant 
death  rate  is  falling.  We  have  established  excel- 
lent creches  and  nurseries  where  they  are  needed. 

It  is  impossible  to  overestimate  the  value  of 
all  this  work  in  industry.  The  Prime  Minister, 
speaking  last  year  on  this  subject,  said,  "It  is  a 
strange  irony,  but  no  small  compensation,  that 
the  making  of  weapons  of  destruction  should 
afford  the  occasion  to  humanize  industry.  Yet 
such  is  the  case.  Old  prejudices  have  vanished, 
new  ideas  are  abroad;  employers  and  workers, 
the  public  and  the  State,  are  all  favourable  to 
new  methods.  The  opportunity  must  not  be 
allowed  to  slip.  It  may  well  be  that,  when  the 


THE  PROTECTION  OP  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  141 

tumult  of  war  is  a  distant  echo  and  the  making 
of  munitions  a  nightmare  of  the  past,  the  effort 
now  being  made  to  soften  asperities,  to  secure 
the  welfare  of  the  workers,  and  to  build  a  bridge 
of  sympathy  and  understanding  between  em- 
ployer and  employed,  will  have  left  behind  re- 
sults of  permanent  and  enduring  value  to  the 
workers,  to  the  nation  and  to  mankind  at  large." 
I  am  no  believer  in  the  gloomy  predictions  of 
industrial  revolutions  after  the  war.  We  will 
have  revolutions — but  of  the  right  kind  and  one 
thing  has  been  clearly  shown,  that  the  workers 
of  our  country  are  not  only  loyal  citizens  but 
realize  every  issue  of  this  conflict  as  vividly  as 
anyone  else.  On  their  work,  men  and  women,  our 
Navy,  our  Army  and  our  country,  have  depended 
—and  they  have  not  failed  us  in  any  real  thing. 

MINISTBY  OF  MUNITIONS. 

DUTIES  OF  WELFARE  SUPERVISORS  FOR  WOMEN. 
(Sometimes  called  EMPLOYMENT   SUPERINTENDENTS.) 


NOTE. — It  is  not  suggested  that  all  these  duties 


142  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

should  be  imposed  upon  the  Employment 
Superintendent  directly  she  is  appointed.  The 
size  of  the  Factory  will  to  a  certain  extent 
determine  the  scope  of  her  work,  and  in  as- 
signing her  duties  regard  will  of  course  be  had 
to  her  professional  ability  to  cope  with  them. 

These  officers  are  responsible  solely  to  the 
firms  that  employ  them,  and  in  no  sense  to  the 
Ministry  of  Munitions. 


The  experience  which  has  now  been  obtained 
in  National  and  other  Factories  making  muni- 
tions of  war  has  demonstrated  that  the  post  of 
Welfare  Supervisor  is  a  valuable  asset  to  Factory 
management  wherever  women  are  employed. 
Through  this  channel  attention  has  been  drawn 
to  conditions  of  work,  previously  unnoted,  which 
were  inimical  to  the  well-being  of  those  em- 
ployed. The  following  notes  have,  therefore,  been 
prepared  for  the  information  of  employers  who 
have  not  hitherto  engaged  such  officers,  but  who 
desire  to  know  the  position  a  Welfare  Supervisor 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  143 

should  take  and  the  duties  and  authority  which, 
it  is  suggested,  might  be  delegated  to  her. 

POSITION. 

It  has  generally  been  found  convenient  that 
the  Welfare  Supervisor  should  be  directly  re- 
sponsible to  the  General  Manager,  and  should  be 
given  a  definite  position  on  the  managerial  staff 
in  connection  with  the  Labour  Employment 
Department  of  the  Factory.  She  is  thus  able 
to  refer  all  matters  calling  for  attention  direct 
to  the  General  Manager,  and  may  be  regarded 
by  him  as  a  liason  between  him  and  the  various 
Departments  dealing  writh  the  women  employees. 

DUTIES. 

The  duty  of  a  Welfare  Supervisor  is  to  obtain 
and  to  maintain  a  healthy  staff  of  workers  and 
to  help  in  maintaining  satisfactory  conditions 
for  the  work. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  staff  satisfactory  both 
from  the  point  of  view  of  health  and  technical 
efficiency,  it  has  been  found  to  be  an  advantage 


144  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

to  bring  the  Welfare  Supervisor  into  the  business 
of  selecting  women  and  girls  for  employment. 

I.   THE  OBTAINING  OF  A  HEALTHY  STAFF. 

Her  function  is  to  consider  the  general  health, 
physical  capacity  and  character  of  each  appli- 
cant. As  regards  those  under  16  years  of  age, 
she  could  obtain  useful  advice  as  to  health  from 
the  Certifying  Surgeon  when  he  grants  Certif- 
icates of  fitness.  The  Management  can,  if  they 
think  fit,  empower  her  to  refer  for  medical  ad- 
vice to  their  panel  Doctor,  other  applicants  con- 
cerning whose  general  fitness  she  is  in  doubt. 
This  selection  of  employees  furnishes  the 
Welfare  Supervisor  with  a  valuable  opportunity 
for  establishing  a  personal  link  with  the  workers. 

Her  function  is  thus  concerned  with  selection 
on  general  grounds,  while  the  actual  engaging  of 
those  selected  may  be  carried  out  by  the  Over- 
looker or  other  person  responsible  for  the  tech- 
nical side  of  the  work.  In  this  way  both  aspects 
of  appointment  receive  full  consideration. 

The  Management  may  find  further  that  it  is 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  145 

useful  to  consult  the  Welfare  Supervisor  as  to 
promotions  of  women  in  the  Factory,  thus  con- 
tinuing the  principle  of  regarding  not  only  tech- 
nical efficiency  but  also  general  considerations 
in  the  control  of  the  women  in  the  Factory. 

II.   THE  MAINTAINING  OF  A  HEALTHY  STAFF. 

The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  ascertain  what 
are  the  particular  needs  of  the  workers.  These 
needs  will  then  be  found  to  group  themselves 
under  two  headings: 

(a)  Needs  within  the  Factory — Intramural 
Welfare. 

(&)  Needs  outside  the  Factory — Extramural 

Welfare. 

* 

INTRAMURAL  WELFARE. 

I.   SUPERVISION  OF  WORKING  CONDITIONS. 

The  Welfare  Supervisor  may  be  made  re- 
sponsible for  the  following  matters: 

(a)  General  behaviour  of  women  and  girls  in- 
side the  factory. — While  responsibility  for  the 
10 


146  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

technical  side  of  the  work  must  rest  with  the 
Technical  Staff,  the  Welfare  Supervisor  should 
be  responsible  for  all  questions  of  general  be- 
haviour. 

(b)  Transfer. — The     Welfare      Supervisor 
would,  if  the  health  of  a  woman  was  affected 
by  the  particular  process  on  which  she  is  en- 
gaged, be  allowed,  after  having  consulted  the 
Foreman  concerned,  to  suggest  to  the  Manage- 
ment the  possibility  of  transfer  of  the  woman 
to  work  more  suited  to  her  state  of  health. 

(c)  Night  Supervision. — The   Welfare   Su- 
pervisor should  have  a  deputy  for  night  work 
and  should  herself  occasionally  visit  the  Fac- 
tory at  night  to  see  that  satisfactory  conditions 
are  maintained. 

(d)  Dismissal. — It  will  be  in  keeping  with 
the  general  suggestions  as  to  the  functions  of 
the  Welfare  Supervisor  if  she  is  consulted  on 
general  grounds  with  regard  to  the  dismissal 
of  women  and  girls. 

(e)  The  maintenance  of  healthy  conditions. 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  147 

-This  implies  that  she  should,  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  health  of  the  female  employees, 
see  to  the  general  cleanliness,  ventilation  and 
warmth  of  the  Factory  and  keep  the  Manage- 
ment informed  of  the  results  of  her  observa- 
tions. 

(f)  The  provision  of  seats. — She  should 
study  working  conditions  so  as  to  be  able  to 
bring  to  the  notice  of  the  Management  the 
necessity  for  the  provision  of  seats  where  these 
are  possible. 

II.  CANTEEN. 

Unless  the  Factory  is  a  small  one  it  would 
hardly  be  possible  for  the  Welfare  Supervisor  to 
manage  the  canteen.  The  Management  will  prob- 
ably prefer  to  entrust  the  matter  to  an  expert 
who  should  satisfy  the  Management  in  consulta- 
tion with  the  Welfare  Supervisor  on  the  follow- 
ing matters: — 

(1)  That  the  Canteen  provides  all  the  nec- 
essary facilities  for  the  women  workers;  that 


148  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

is  to  say,  suitable  food,  rapidly  and  punctually 
served. 

(2)  That   Canteen    facilities   are   provided 
when   necessary   for  the   women  before  they 
begin  work  so  that  no  one  need  start  work 
without  having  taken  food. 

(3)  That  the  Canteen  is  as  restful  and  as 
comfortable  as  possible  so  that  it  serves  a 
double  purpose  of  providing  rest  as  well  as 
food. 

III.  SUPERVISION  OP  AMBULANCE  RESTROOM  AND 

FIRST  AID. 

While  not  responsible  for  actually  attending 
to  accidents,  except  in  small  Factories,  the  Wel- 
fare Supervisor  should  work  in  close  touch  with 
the  Factory  Doctor  and  Nurses.  She  should, 
however,  be  responsible  for  the  following  mat- 
ters : — 

(1)  She  should  help  in  the  selection  of  the 
Nurses,  who  should  be  recognised  as  belonging 
to  the  Welfare  staff. 

(2)  While  not  interfering  with  the  Nurses 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  149 

in  the  professional  discharge  of  their  duties, 
she  should  see  that  their  work  is  carried  out 
promptly  and  that  the  workers  are  not  kept 
waiting  long  before  they  receive  attention. 

(3)  She  should  supervise  the  keeping  of  all 
records  of  accident  and  illness  in  the  Ambu- 
lance Room. 

(4)  She  should  keep  in  touch  with  all  cases 
of  serious  accident  or  illness. 

It  would  further  be  useful  if  she  were  allowed 
to  be  kept  in  touch  with  the  Compensation  De- 
partment inside  the  Factory  with  a  view  to  ad- 
vising on  any  cases  of  hardship  that  may  arise. 

IV.  SUPERVISION  OF  CLOAK-ROOMS  AND  SANITARY 
CONVENIENCES. 

The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  be  held  re- 
sponsible for  the  following  matters:— 

(1)  General  cleanliness. 

(2)  Prevention  of  Loitering. 

(3)  Prevention  of  Pilfering. 

The  Management  will  decide  what  staff  is  nee- 


150  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

essary  to  assist  her,  and  it  should  be  her  duty 
to  report  to  the  Management  on  these  matters. 

V.  PROVISION  OF  OVERALLS. 

The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  have  the  duty 
of  supervising  the  Protective  Clothing  supplied 
to  the  women  for  their  work. 

EXTRAMURAL    WELFARE. 

The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  keep  in  touch 
with  all  outside  agencies  responsible  for  :— 

(1)  Housing. 

(2)  Transit  facilities. 

(3)  Sickness  and  Maternity  cases. 

(4)  Recreation. 

(5)  Day  Nurseries. 

In  communicating  with  any  of  these  agencies 
it  will  no  doubt  be  preferable  that  she  should  do 
so  through  the  Management. 

III.  RECORDS. 

A.  The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  for  the  pur- 
pose of  her  work  have  some  personal  records  of 


THE  PROTECTION  OF  WOMEN  IN  INDUSTRY  151 

every  woman  employee.  If  a  card-index  system 
is  adopted,  a  sample  card  suggesting  the  neces- 
sary particulars  which  it  is  desirable  should  be 
kept  by  Welfare  Supervisors  is  supplied  to  em- 
ployers on  request. 

B.  The  Welfare  Supervisor  should  have  some 
way  of  observing  the  health  in  relation  to  the 
efficiency  of  the  workers,  and  if  the  Management 
approved  this  could  be  done : 

(a)  By  allowing  her  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  Wages  Department.    She  could  then  watch 
the  rise  and  fall  of  wages  earned  by  individual 
employees  from  the  point  of  view  that  a  steady 
fall  in  earnings  may  be  the  first  indication  of 
an  impending  breakdown  in  health. 

(b)  By  allowing  her  to  keep  in  touch  with 
the  Time  Office  she  should  be  able  to  obtain 
records  of  all  reasons  for  lost  time.    From 
such  records  information  can  be  obtained  of 
sickness,   inadequate  transit  and  urgent  do- 
mestic duties,  which  might  otherwise  not  be 
discovered.     Here  again,  if  a  card-index  sys- 


152  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

tem  is  adopted  a  sample  card  for  this  purpose 
can  be  obtained  from  the  Welfare  and  Health 
Section  on  request. 

(c)  By  keeping  records  of  all  cases  of  acci- 
dent and  sickness  occurring  in  the  Factory. 
Sample  Ambulance  Books  and  Accident  Rec- 
ord Cards  can  also  be  obtained  from  the 
Welfare  and  Health  Section. 


THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY 


"If  it  were  not  for  the  women,  agriculture 
would  be  at  an  absolute  standstill  on  many 
farms  in  England  and  Wales  today." 

—President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 


CHAPTER  VIII 

" THE  WOMEN'S  LAND   ARMY" 

THE   Land  Army  of  Women,   which  now 
numbers    over    258,300    whole    and    part- 
time  workers,  has  done  splendid  work. 
For  some  years  before  the  war  women  had 
been  very  little  used  on  the  land  in  certain  parts 
of  England  and  Wales.     In  Scotland  and   in 
some  of  the  English  counties  there  had  always 
been,    and    still    were,    quite    fair    numbers   of 
women  on  the  land. 

Within  eighteen  months  of  the  outbreak  of 
war,  about  300,000  agricultural  laborers  had 
enlisted  and  the  work  had  been  carried  on  with 
difficulty  by  the  farmer  in  the  first  year  of  the 
war.  The  farmer  secured  all  the  labour  he  could, 
old  men  returned  to  help,  and  the  army  released 
skilled  men  temporarily,  from  training,  to  help. 
Soldiers  were  used  in  groups  for  seasonal  work, 
the  farmer  paying  a  good  rate  for  them.  Groups 
of  women  were  also  organized  for  seasonal  work 


156  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

by  various  voluntary  organizations,  two  of  these 
being  the  Land  Council  and  the  Women's  Na- 
tional Land  Service  Corps.  The  Women's  Farm 
and  Garden  Union  also  did  good  work.  The 
Land  Service  Corps  made  one  of  its  most  im- 
portant objects  the  organization  of  village  women 
into  working  gangs  under  leaders.  One  inter- 
esting piece  of  work  undertaken  by  the  Corps 
last  year  was  finding  a  large  number  of  women 
for  flax-pulling  in  Somerset.  This  the  Flax- 
Growers'  Association  asked  them  to  do,  as  suffi- 
cient local  labour  could  not  be  raised.  The  War 
Agricultural  Committee  made  all  the  local  ar- 
rangements. This  was  pioneer  work  of  great 
value  and  importance  as  flax  is  essential  in  the 
making  of  aeroplane  wings. 

The  Corps  sent  a  group  of  100  women  under 
competent  gang  leaders.  The  workers  were 
housed  in  an  empty  country  house  and  the  War 
Office  provided  bedding.  The  Y.  W.  C.  A.  under- 
took the  catering  at  the  request  of  the  Corps. 
The  work,  which  was  a  great  success,  consisted  in 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          157 

pulling,  gating,  wind  mowing,  stocking  and  tying 
flax. 

The  Corps  has  already  been  asked  to  undertake 
this  again  next  year.  Owing  to  the  Russian 
troubles  and  the  closing  of  the  Port  of  Riga,  it 
will  be  necessary  to  put  many  more  hundreds  of 
acres  under  cultivation,  and  it  is  probable  four 
or  five  times  as  many  women  will  be  needed  next 
year. 

Some  of  the  Corps  members  are  doing  good 
work  in  Army  Remount  Depots,  working  in  the 
stables  and  exercising  the  horses.  One  of  the 
latest  interesting  developments  of  women's  work 
is  in  the  care  of  sick  horses,  carried  out  in  the 
Horse  Hospital  in  London. 

Within  nine  months  of  the  outbreak  of  war, 
it  was  clear  we  must  secure  help  for  the  farmers, 
in  order  to  enable  them  to  do  their  work.  As  the 
submarine  menace  developed,  and  the  supply  of 
grain  in  the  world  was  affected  by  the  numbers 
of  men  taken  away  from  production,  it  was 
imperative  we  should  try  to  grow  more  food. 


158  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Our  grain  production  at  the  best  was  only 
twelve  weeks  of  our  supply,  and  even  to  keep 
up  to  that  seemed  to  be  a  problem. 

We  realised  that  in  agriculture,  as  in  so  many 
other  things,  women  must  fill  up  the  ranks,  and 
in  the  first  official  appeal  of  the  Government  for 
additional  woman  labour,  the  land  had  an  im- 
portant place. 

Lord  Selborne,  President  of  the  Board  of  Agri- 
culture, drew  up  a  scheme  for  the  organization 
of  agriculture  throughout  the  country.  It  con- 
sisted of  a  War  Agricultural  Committee  set  up  in 
each  county  who  look  after  production,  use  of 
land,  procuring  use  of  motor  machinery,  etc., 
and  of  Women's  Agricultural  Committees.  The 
latter  undertake  the  organization  of  securing 
women  workers  for  the  land,  choosing  them,  and 
arranging  for  training  and  placing  out. 

The  voluntary  groups  of  women,  who  have  been 
working  at  the  problem  in  the  war,  are  now  prac- 
tically all  merged  in  the  Board  of  Agriculture's 
organization.  The  Women's  Branch  of  the  Food 
Production  Department  now  controls  and  ar- 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          159 

ranged  the  whole  work  and  Miss  Meriel  Talbot  is 
the  able  chief. 

The  Women's  Land  Corps,  like  the  other  or- 
ganizations, was  prepared  to  be  merged  in  the 
new  Land  Army  of  the  Board  and  to  cease  to 
exist  as  a  separate  organization.  Its  members 
were  willing  to  become  part  of  the  new  Land 
Army. 

The  Board  found  there  was  a  distinct  need 
for  a  voluntary  association  which  would  con- 
tinue to  enroll  women,  who  could  not  sign  on  for 
the  duration  of  the  war,  and  who  were  able  to 
forego  the  benefits  of  free  training,  outfit  and 
travelling  given  under  the  Government  scheme. 
Over  100  members  of  the  Corps  did  enroll  and 
the  original  Corps  members  do  not  require  to 
appear  before  the  local  Selection  Committees  nor 
to  submit  references,  which  marks  the  Board's 
confidence  in  the  Corps. 

Many  of  the  Corps  Workers  are  now  organiz- 
ing Secretaries  for  the  Counties  or  Assistant 
Secretaries,  or  are  travelling  Inspectors  under 
the  Board  of  Agriculture. 


160  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  Corps  still  organizes  the  supply  of  tem- 
porary workers  for  seasonal  jobs  such  as  potato 
dropping,  hoeing,  harvesting,  fruitpicking,  potato 
and  root  lifting,  etc.,  done  by  groups  under 
leaders.  The  work  of  organizing  in  the  Counties 
is  carried  out  by  the  appointment  of  a  woman 
as  District  Representative.  She  is  responsible 
for  a  general  supervision  of  the  work  in  all  the 
villages  in  her  'district.  Each  village  has  a 
woman  to  act  as  Registrar  and  her  duty  (with 
assistants,  if  necessary)  is  to  canvass  all  the  vil- 
lage women  and  girls  for  volunteers  for  whole 
and  part  time  work,  and  for  training,  and  to 
canvass  the  farmer  to  find  out  what  labour  he 
needs,  and  in  the  beginning  they  had  to  induce 
him  to  use  women.  She  puts  the  farmer  and  the 
women  suitable  for  his  needs  in  her  own  district, 
in  touch  with  each  other,  and  passes  to  the  Dis- 
trict Representative  and  to  the  Employment  Ex- 
changes the  names  of  all  women  qualified  to  help 
and  not  placed,  and  of  those  willing  to  train. 

All  these  committees,  registrars  and  repre- 
sentatives are  honorary  workers.  The  Board  of 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          161 

Agriculture  appoints  to  each  County  for  work 
with  the  committee  a  woman  Organizing  Secre- 
tary, and  assistant  also  if  necessary. 

The  Board  of  Agriculture,  working  through 
the  Employment  Exchanges  and  under  the  direc- 
tion of  their  women  heads,  arranged  a  series  of 
meetings  and  work  of  propaganda  by  posters  and 
leaflets  throughout  the  whole  country  early  in 
1916. 

The  Representatives  and  Registrars  organized 
the  meetings  to  which  the  farmers  and  the  women 
were  invited,  and  the  whole  scheme  was  ex- 
plained. These  were  very  frequently  held  in  the 
market  towns  on  market  day,  and  the  farmer  and 
his  wife  came  in  to  hear  after  the  sales.  We  had 
to  assail  the  prejudices  of  some  of  our  farmers 
pretty  vigorously  and  of  the  women,  too.  We 
found  the  women  who  volunteered  best  for  land 
work  were  in  the  class  above  the  industrial 
worker,  and  that  the  comfortable  and  well  edu- 
cated woman  stood  its  work  admirably. 

The  farmers  were  stiff  to  move  in  some  cases 
and  especially  disliked  the  idea  of  having  to  train 
11 


162  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

the  women.  "They  weren't  going  to  run  after 
women  all  day — they  had  too  much  to  do  to  go 
messing  round  with  girls!"  This  objection  was 
met  by  the  Board  of  Agriculture  arranging  train- 
ing centres  in  every  county.  Some  of  the  train- 
ing was  done  at  the  Women's  Agricultural  Col- 
leges and  among  places  that  arranged  training 
very  early  were  the  Harper  Adam's  College  in 
Shropshire  (Swanley) ;  Garford  (Leeds) ;  Spars- 
holt  (Winchester) ;  The  Midland  Agricultural 
Training  College  (Kingston),  and  Aberystwith. 

The  Women's  Agricultural  Committee  have 
arranged  a  great  many  training  centres  at  big 
farms  and  on  the  home  farms  of  some  of  our 
estates. 

The  girls  volunteering  for  training  must  be 
eighteen  years  of  age.  They  are  interviewed  as 
to  suitability  and  references  by  the  Selection 
Committee.  They  must  have  a  medical  certifi- 
cate filled  in  by  their  own  doctor  or  by  one  of  the 
committee's  doctors. 

On  being  passed,  they  go  to  the  training  centre, 
the  travelling  expenses  being  paid  by  the  Board. 


BACK  TO  THE  LAND 
WOMEN  TACKLE  A  STRONG  MAN'S  PROBLEM 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          163 

Outfit  is  free  and  the  uniform  is  a  very  sensible 
one  of  breeches,  tunic,  boots  and  gaiters  or  put- 
tees, and  soft  hat,  breeches,  etc.,  cut  to  measure 
for  each  girl.  Training  and  maintenance  are  free 
and  there  is  always  an  instructor  on  the  farm  in 
addition  to  the  farmer  and  his  workers.  The 
travelling  to  the  post  found,  is  again  paid  by  the 
Government,  and  if  work  is  not  found  at  once, 
on  completion  of  training,  maintenance  is  paid 
till  it  is. 

The  training  is  generally  of  four  to  six  weeks' 
duration  and  in  some  cases  longer,  and  over  7,000 
women  have  been  trained  in  this  way  and  placed. 

Appeals  for  land  recruits  were  made  in  Feb- 
ruary, 1916,  and  in  January  and  April,  1917, 
when  the  Women's  National  Service  Department 
asked  for  100,000  women. 

The  Land  Army  women  after  three  months' 
service  receive  an  official  armlet — a  green  band 
with  lion  rampant  in  red  and  a  certificate  of 
honour.  The  Land  women  are  the  only  women 
who  receive  an  armlet — the  munition  girl  wears 
a  triangular  brass  brooch  with  "On  war  service." 


164  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

To  induce  the  conservative  farmer  to  try  the 
women,  exhibitions  of  farm  work  were  arranged 
in  different  parts  of  the  country  with  great  suc- 
cess, and  the  girls  showed  they  could  plough,  and 
weed  and  hoe  and  milk  and  care  for  stock,  and 
do  all  the  farm  work,  except  the  heaviest,  ex- 
tremely well. 

The  War  Office  in  its  official  memorandum  of 
1916  gives  a  long  list  of  the  farm  and  garden 
work  in  which  women  are  successfully  employed, 
and  they  have  been  particularly  successful  in  the 
care  of  stock. 

The  farmer  who  used  to  declare  he  would  never 
have  a  woman  and  that  they  were  no  use,  and 
who  has  them  now,  is  always  quite  pleased  and 
generally  cherishes  a  profound  conviction  that 
the  reason  why  his  women  are  all  right  is  because 
he  has  the  most  exceptional  ones  in  the  country. 

Housing  the  worker  and  especially  the  groups 
for  seasonal  work  has  been  a  problem,  but  it  has 
been  done  and  the  feeding  of  groups  well  has 
been  managed,  too. 

The  housing  conditions  for  the  girl  going  to 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          165 

work  whole-time  are  investigated  by  the  Board 
organizer,  and  the  representatives  of  committee. 
Very  frequently  a  small  group  of  girls  have  a 
cottage  on  the  farm. 

The  Inspectors  of  the  Board  are  in  charge  of 
three  counties  each  and  look  after  all  conditions. 

The  girls  are  now  being  trained  to  drive  the 
motor  tractors  for  ploughing,  and  for  women 
who  understand  horses  there  is  at  present  a 
greater  demand  than  supply. 

The  Women's  Branch  of  the  Board  is  also  at 
this  time  appealing  for  well-educated  women  to 
aid  in  Timber  Supply  for  two  pieces  of  work- 
measuring  trees  when  felled,  calculating  the 
amount  of  wood  in  the  log,  and  marking  off  for 
sawing,  and  as  forewomen  to  superintend  cross- 
cutting,  felling  small  timber  and  coppice  and 
to  do  the  lighter  work  of  forestry. 

Girls  and  women  are  in  market  gardens  and 
on  private  gardens  in  very  large  numbers.  The 
King  has  a  great  many  women  in  his  gardens 
and  conservatories.  Most  estates  are  growing 
as  many  vegetables  as  possible  to  supply  the 


166  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

many  hospitals  and  the  Fleet,  and  girls  are  help- 
ing very  much  in  this.  A  great  deal  has  been 
done  by  work  in  allotments,  plots  of  land  taken 
up  by  town  dwellers  and  cultivated.  In  one  part 
of  South  Wales  alone  40,000  allotments  have 
been  worked  and  the  allotment  holders  are  or- 
ganizing themselves  co-operatively  for  the  pur- 
chase of  seed,  etc.  We  have  Governmental 
powers  now  not  only  to  enable  Local  Authorities 
to  secure  unused  land  for  allotments,  but  to 
compel  farmers  to  cultivate  all  their  ground. 
We  have  fixed  a  price  for  wheat  for  five  years, 
and  a  minimum  wage  for  the  agricultural  man 
and  woman. 

The  girls  on  the  land  improve  in  health  and 
increase  in  weight.  The  work  is  not  only  of 
supreme  usefulness  to  the  country — we  have  the 
submarine  ceaselessly  gnawing  at  our  shipping 
and  making  our  burden  heavier — so  we  must 
produce  everything  possible.  It  has  improved 
the  physique  of  our  girls — they  like  it,  and  many 
will  permanently  adopt  it.  Our  Board  of  Agri- 
culture is  also  encouraging,  for  the  benefit  of 


"THE  WOMEN'S  LAND  ARMY"          167 

the  country  woman,  the  formation  of  Women's 
Institutes,  like  those  in  Canada  and  America. 

In  the  Lord  Mayor's  Procession  in  London,  on 
November  9,  1917,  with  the  men-in-arms  of  all 
our  great  Commonwealth  of  Nations,  with  the 
Tanks  and  the  captured  German  aeroplanes  and 
guns,  the  munition  girls  and  the  Land  girls 
marched.  No  group  in  all  that  great  array  had 
a  warmer  welcome  from  our  vast  crowds  than 
our  sensibly  clothed,  healthy,  happy  and  su- 
premely useful  land  girls. 


WAR  SAVINGS— THE   MONEY 
BEHIND  THE  GUNS 

"You  cannot  have  absolute  equality  of  sacrifice 
in  a  war.  That  is  impossible.  But  you  can  have 
equal  readiness  to  sacrifice  from  all.  There  are 
hundreds  of  thousands  who  have  given  their 
lives,  there  are  millions  who  have  given  up  com- 
fortable homes  and  exchanged  them  for  a  daily 
communion  with  death.  Multitudes  have  given 
up  those  whom  they  loved  best.  Let  the  nation  as 
a  whole  place  its  comforts,  its  luxuries,  its  indul- 
gences, its  elegances,  on  a  national  altar,  conse- 
crated by  such  sacrifices  as  these  men  have 
made."  —THE  PRIME  MINISTER. 

"Deep  down  in  the  heart  of  every  one  of  us 
there  is.  the  spirit  of  love  for  our  native  land, 
dulled  it  may  be  in  some  cases,  perhaps  tempo- 
rarily obscured,  by  hardship,  injustice  and  suf- 
fering, but  it  is  there  and  it  remains  for  us  to 
touch  the  chord  which  will  bring  it  to  life;  once 
aroused  it  will  prove  irresistable." 

— Sir  R.  M.  KINDERSLEY,  K.B.E. 


CHAPTER  IX 

WAR  SAVINGS— THE  MONEY 
BEHIND  THE  GUNS 

TO  win  the  war,  we  must  save.    There  is  no 
task  more  imperative,  no  need  more  urgent, 
and  there  is  no  greater  work  than  the  work 
of  educating  the  peoples  of  our  countries,  and 
inducing  them  .to  save  and  lend  to  their  Govern- 
ments. 

The  first  Government  Committee  set  up  in 
Britain  to  do  propaganda  work  for  war  loans 
was  established  shortly  after  the  war  under 
the  title  of  the  "Parliamentary  War  Savings 
Committee."  It  did  some  propaganda  for  the 
early  war  loans.  At  the  same  time  a  very  inter- 
esting group  of  people  associated  with  the 
"Round  Table,"  and  including  in  it  many  of  our 
most  able  financiers  and  economists — such  men 
as  the  future  chairman  of  the  National  War 
Savings  Committee,  Sir  Robert  M.  Kindersley, 
K.B.E.;  C.  J.  Stewart,  the  Public  Trustee;  Hart- 


172  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

ley  Withers,  Lord  Sumner,  T.  L.  Gilmour,  Theo- 
dore Chambers  (now  Controller  of  the  National 
War  Savings  Committee),  Evan  Hughes  (now 
Organizer-in-Chief),  Lieut.  J.  H.  Curie,  Coun- 
tess Ferrers,  Basil  Blackett,  C.B.;  William 
Schooling  and  Mrs.  Minty,  Hon.  Sec.  Excellent 
articles  were  written,  leaflets  published  and  meet- 
ings held  at  which  many  of  us  spoke  throughout 
the  country,  and  valuable  work  was  done  towards 
educating  groups  of  useful  people  in  the  country. 
In  1915  a  committee  was  appointed  by  the 
House  of  Commons  to  go  into  the  whole  question 
of  Loans  and  Methods.  The  committee  was  pre- 
sided over  by  Mr.  E.  S.  Montagu,  and  its  findings 
were  of  great  interest.  It  advised  the  immediate 
setting  up  of  a  committee  whose  task  it  would  be 
to  create  machinery  by  which  the  small  investor 
might  be  assisted  to  invest  in  State  Securities, 
and  secondly,  to  educate  the  country  as  a  whole 
on  the  imperative  need  of  economy.  The  Lords 
Commissioners  of  His  Majesty's  Treasury  set 
up  the  National  War  Savings  Committee  in 
March,  1916,  and  in  April,  1917,  it  became  a  Gov- 


WAR  SAVINGS  173 

eminent  Department.  The  first  chairman  was 
George  Barnes,  Esq.,  M.P.,  but  very  soon  the 
chairmanship  was  taken  by  Sir  Robert  Kinders- 
ley,  a  director  of  the  Bank  of  England,  who  has 
spent  himself  unceasingly  in  his  great  task. 

The  committee  started  its  work  with  a  very 
small  staff,  Mr.  Schooling  being  one  of  the  orig- 
inal half-dozen  in  it,  and  the  schemes  and  meth- 
ods of  work  were  evolved.  It  works  in  its  or- 
ganization by  setting  up  committees.  The 
County  is  the  biggest  unit  and  the  Hon.  Secre- 
tary of  the  County  works  at  setting  up  Local 
Committees,  which  are  established  in  towns  with 
under  20,000  of  a  population,  and  we  put  a 
group  of  parishes  together  in  rural  districts 
under  one  Local  Committee.  All  towns,  cities 
and  boroughs  over  20,000  population  are  set  up 
by  Headquarters  and  have  Local  Central  Com- 
mittees. There  are  now  in  England  and  Wales 
over  1,580  of  these  committees.  Scotland  is 
worked  by  a  separate  committee.  Linked  up  to 
these  committees  and  represented  on  them,  the 
War  Savings  Associations  work,  and  there  are 


6  REASONS 

Wty  HH  ShooU  Save 


1.  Because  when  you  save  you  help  our  soldiers 

and  sailors. 

2.  Because  when  you  spend  on  things  you  do 

not  need  you  help  the  Germans. 

3.  Because  when   you   spend   you    make   other 

people  work  for  yon,  and  the  work  of  every 
one  Is  wanted  now  to  help  our  fighting 
men  to  win  the  war,  or  to  produce  neces- 
saries and  to  make  goods  for  export. 

4.  Because  by  confining  your  spending  to  neces- 

saries you  relieve  the  strain  on  our  ships 
and  docks  and  railways  and  make  transport 
cheaper  and  quicker. 

5.  Because  when  you  spend  you  moke  things 

dearer  far  everyone,  especially  for  those 
who  are  poorer  than  yourself 

6.  Because  every  shilling  saved  helps  twice,  first 

when  you  don't  spend  it  and  again  when 
you  lend  it  to  the  Nation. 


POSTER  ISSUED  BY  NATIONAL  WAR  SAVINGS  COMMITTEE 


WAR  SAVINGS  175 

now  altogether  over  40,000  of  these  with  a 
weekly  subscribing  membership  of  over  7,000,- 
000  people. 

The  committees  also  did  the  propaganda  work 
for  the  January-February  Loan  of  1917,  when 
five  billion  dollars  was  raised  (£1,000,000,000) 
and  over  eight  million  people  (out  of  our  popula- 
tion of  forty-five  millions)  subscribed  to  the 
loan. 

The  work  of  the  committees  was  admirable  at 
that  time  and  assisted  materially  in  the  success 
of  the  loan. 

The  National  War  Savings  Committee  was 
also  asked  by  Lord  Devonport  in  April  to  assist 
the  Ministry  of  Food  by  doing,  through  its  com- 
mittees, a  great  food-saving  propaganda.  This 
request  was  made,  because,  it  was  explained,  the 
War  Savings  Committees  are  the  best  organized 
and  most  thoroughly  democratic  Government 
organization  in  the  country.  This  propaganda 
was  also  done  with  marked  success.  In  autumn 
of  this  year  the  committees  have  done  an  ex- 
tensive campaign  of  education,  and  of  work  to 


176  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

strengthen  and  enlarge  their  associations,  and 
also  to  push  the  sale  of  the  new  War  Bonds. 

The  Treasury's  policy  now  is  to  raise  all  the 
money  needed  by  the  wisest  borrowing  from  the 
people — day  by  day  borrowing. 

The  entire  work  of  the  committees  and  asso- 
ciations is  done  voluntarily — nothing  is  paid  in 
the  whole  country  for  the  work,  and  the  only 
charge  is  Headquarters  Staff  and  propaganda 
expenses.  The  County  Secretaries  are  in  most 
cases  Board  of  Education  Inspectors  whom  the 
Board  has  generously  allowed  to  help. 

The  War  Saving  Association  is  the  body  that 
sells  the  War  Savings  Certificates,  which  are 
very  much  like  the  American  ones.  These  are 
also  sold  at  all  Post  Offices  and  Banks.  They 
cost  15/6  each,  and  in  five  years  from  date  of 
purchase  are  worth  £1.  The  interest  in  the  fifth 
year  is  at  the  rate  of  £5.4.7  per  cent.  The  inter- 
est begins  at  the  end  of  the  first  year  and  the 
certificates  can  be  cashed  at  any  time  at  the  Post 
Office  with  interest  to  the  date  of  cashing.  The 
War  Savings  Certificate  has  the  additional  ad- 


WAR  SAVINGS  177 

vantage  that  its  interest  is  free  of  income  tax, 
and  in  a  country  where  income  tax  begins  above 
£120  ($600),  and  is  then  at  rate  of  2/3  in  £1 
(over  10  per  cent)  on  earned  income  and  3/.  on 
unearned,  its  advantage  is  very  clear.  The  in- 
terest does  not  need  to  be  included  in  income 
returns — but  no  one  may  buy  more  than  500 
certificates.  It  is  a  specially  good  paying  secur- 
ity intended  only  for  the  small  saver. 

The  War  Savings  Associations  can  be  set  up 
by  any  group  of  people,  ten  or  upwards,  who 
wish  to  save  co-operatively.  They  must  estab- 
lish a  committee,  small  or  large.  They  must 
appoint  a  Secretary  and  Treasurer  and  then 
apply  for  recognition  to  their  Local  Committee, 
or  if  there  is  not  one,  to  the  National  Committee. 
They  are  given  an  affiliation  certificate  by  their 
committee  and  receive  free  all  the  books,  papers, 
etc.,  necessary  for  carrying  on  an  association. 
These  are  all  supplied  by  the  National  Committee 
to  Local  Committees. 

The  40,000  Associations  are  in  the  Army, 
Navy,  Munition  Works,  Government  establish- 

12 


178  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

ments,  railways,  banks,  mines,  churches,  shops, 
social  groups,  clubs,  men's  and  women's  organi- 
zations and  10,000  are  in  the  schools.  The 
schools,  where  we  receive  subscriptions  down  to 
2  cents  have  done  wonderful  work  and  the 
teachers  have  done  a  great  deal  to  make  our 
movement  what  it  is.  We  find  the  children  do 
the  best  propaganda  in  the  homes.  One  teacher, 
after  explaining  to  his  children  what  it  all  meant 
in  the  morning,  in  the  afternoon  had  dozens  of 
subscriptions,  and  among  them  a  sovereign  which 
had  been  clasped  tightly  in  a  hot  little  hand  for 
a  mile  and  a  half's  walk.  The  little  boy  said, 
"I  told  Mother  about  it  and  she  gave  me  that 
for  fighting  the  Germans." 

Our  Associations  have  unearthed  piles  of  gold, 
one  village  association  alone  getting  in  £750  in 
gold  ($3,750).  Old  stockings  have  come  out  and 
one  agricultural  laborer  brought  nine  sovereigns 
to  one  of  our  Secretaries  one  night,  and  asked 
her  to  invest  it  to  help  the  soldiers.  She  said, 
"Why  did  you  bring  it  to  me?"  and  he  said, 
"Because  its  secreter  than  the  Post  Office."  And 


WAR  SAVINGS  179 

the  Association  has  the  advantage  that  all  its 
affairs  are  confidential,  and  though  figures  and 
amounts  are  known,  no  single  detail  need  be. 

The  schemes  are  two,  and  apart  from  schools, 
the  minimum  weekly  subscription  is  12  cents. 
There  is  a  Bank  Book  scheme  and  a  Stamp 
scheme  in  which  the  member  holds  a  card  which 
takes  thirty-one  12-cent  stamps,  and  when  filled 
up  is  handed  in  to  the  Secretary  and  a  War 
Savings  Certificate  is  received. 

The  financial  advantage  to  the  members  of 
forming  an  Association  is  quite  easy  to  under- 
stand. Every  week  the  takings  are  invested  by 
the  Secretary  (using  a  special  slip  given  by  the 
National  Committee)  in  War  Savings  Certifi- 
cates, so  that  when  members  finish  subscribing 
for  a  certificate,  instead  of  getting  one  dated  the 
day  they  finished  paying  for  it,  as  it  would  be 
if  they  saved  by  themselves,  the  Secretary  has 
a  store  of  earlier  dated  certificates  on  hand,  and 
the  member  receives  one  of  these. 

This  works  out  quite  fairly  if  one  rule  is  ob- 
served— never  give  any  one  a  Certificate  dated 


180  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

earlier  than  the  first  week  they  started  paying 
for  it. 

The  people  of  England  needed  a  great  deal  of 
education  in  war  saving.  We  had  to  fight  the 
strongly  held  conviction  that  of  all  sins  the  most 
despicable  is  "meanness,"  and  that  too  much 
saving  may  seem  mean. 

No  Englishman  will  ever  really  admit  he  has 
any  money,  and  he  was  inclined  to  question 
your  right  to  talk  about  the  possibility  of  his 
having  some — and  your  right  to  tell  him  what 
to  do  with  it,  supposing  he  had  any.  Some  of 
them  were  a  little  suspicious  that  it  was  the 
workers  we  were  talking  to  most — it  was  not — 
and  some  of  them  were  not  quite  sure  they 
wanted  their  employers  to  know  how  much  they 
saved.  That  is  entirely  obviated  by  the  men 
running  their  own  associations.  Other  people 
told  you  the  people  in  their  district  never  did, 
could,  or  would  save  and  were  spending  their  big 
wages  in  the  most  extravagant  way — that  pianos 
and  fur  coats  appealed  far  more  than  war  savings 
certificates.  The  official  people  in  the  towns 


WAR  SAVINGS  181 

when  we  approached  them  about  conferences  said 
much  the  same  in  some  cases,  but,  yes,  of  course, 
you  could  come  and  have  a  conference  and  the 
Mayor  would  preside  and  you  could  try.  And  you 
did,  and  in  six  months  they  had  dozens  of  associa- 
tions and  thousands  of  members  and  had  sold 
some  thousands  of  certificates.  We  sell  about 
one  and  a  half  million  certificates  a  week  and 
have  sold  about  140  millions  since  March,  1916. 
The  appeal  that  won  them  was  not  only  the  prac- 
tical appeal  of  the  value  of  the  money  after  the 
war  for  themselves,  to  buy  a  house,  to  provide  for 
old  age,  to  educate  the  children.  The  strongest 
appeal  was  the  patriotic  one.  Save  your  money 
to  save  your  country.  Throw  your  silver  bullets 
at  the  enemy.  We  have  not  been  content  to  say 
only  "save,"  we  have  tried  to  educate  our  people 
on  finance  and  economics.  We  have  tried  to 
show  them  that  no  country  can  go  on  in  a  strug- 
gle like  this  unless  it  conserves  its  resources — 
not  even  the  richest  countries.  We  have  tried 
to  appeal  to  the  spirit  behind  all  these  things 


182  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

and  our  Chairman  in  one  of  his  admirable 
speeches  said: 

"It  is  upon  these  simple  human  feelings  of 
loyalty,  comradeship  and  patriotism  that  the 
great  War  Savings  Movement  is  founded.  Ke- 
cause  of  the  strength  of  this  foundation  I  feel 
convinced  that  we  shall  succeed  in  the  great 
national  work  we  are  setting  out  to  perform. 
However  difficult  our  task  may  prove,  however 
serious  the  times  ahead,  this  spirit  will  carry  us 
safely  and  triumphantly  through  everything,  and 
in  the  end  we  shall  find  ourselves  not  weakened 
but  strengthened  on  account  of  these  same  diffi- 
culties which  we  shall  most  surely  overcome." 

The  problem  before  us  is  the  problem  of  find- 
ing ten  times  the  amount  of  money  we  did  before 
the  war  for  National  purposes.  We  are  spending 
over  $30,000,000  a  day.  By  our  taxations,  which 
includes  an  80  per  cent  tax  on  excess  profits, 
we  are  raising  over  25  per  cent  of  our  total 
expenditure.  We  have  met  some  other  part  of 
our  expenditure  in  the  three  years  of  war  by 
using  our  gold  reserve  very  heavily ;  a  great  deal 


WAR  SAVINGS  183 

of  it  in  payments  in  America,  where  you  now 
possess  more  than  a  third  of  the  gold  of  the 
entire  world.  We  have  also  used  a  portion  of 
our  securities,  our  capital  wealth  and  past  sav- 
ings, and  we  have  had  to  borrow  heavily.  Our 
National  Debt  is  now  £4,000,000,000  It  was 
£700,000,000  at  the  outbreak  of  war.  £1,000,- 
000,000  has  been  lent  to  our  Allies  and  the 
Dominions. 

Numbers  of  people  have  an  impression  that 
Governments  can  find  money.  They  can,  to  a 
certain  extent,  but  only  in  a  very  limited  way, 
without  great  harm.  There  is  in  this  creation 
an  addition  to  the  buying  power  of  the  com- 
munity, but  if  everybody  goes  on  spending  no 
addition  to  the  productive  power,  so  it  only 
creates  high  prices  and  hardship.  The  inflation 
of  currency  caused  by  it  is  a  risk  and  an  evil. 
The  sound  way  is  to  get  the  money  by  taxation, 
from  resources  and  in  real  voluntary  loans. 

America's  burden  is  very  much  the  same  as 
our  own,  and  the  need  here  also  of  voluntary 
saving  and  lending  to  the  extent  of  more  than 


184  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

half  the  expenditure  is  clear.  America,  like  our- 
selves, is  very  wisely  trying  to  democratise  its 
war  loans.  Nothing  is  wiser  or  sounder  or  more 
calculated  to  make  progress,  and  the  changes 
after  the  war  which  will  come,  sound  and  steady 
than  widely-spread,  democratically-subscribed 
loans.  These  vast  debts  will  have  to  be  paid  by 
the  ability,  productiveness  and  work  of  all,  so  it 
is  in  the  highest  degree  desirable  that  the  money 
and  interest  to  be  paid  back  should  go  out  to 
every  class  of  the  community — and  not  only  to 
small  sections.  It  is  well  to  remember,  too,  that 
the  country  that  goes  to  the  peace  table  finan- 
cially sound  is  in  a  position  to  make  better 
terms. 

But  the  purely  financial  side  of  war  savings 
is  not  the  most  important  one.  We  talk  in  terms 
of  money  but  the  reality  is  not  money  but  goods 
and  services.  The  problem  before  our  Govern- 
ments and  the  problem  that  cannot  be  left  to 
our  children  (though  the  debts  incurred  in  se- 
curing the  credits  may  be)  is  the  problem  of 
finding  every  day  over  $ 30,000,000  worth  of  ma- 


FOR  YOUR 


BUY  WAR.  SAVIN<i 

3,nd    they   will 


ONE  OF  THE  POSTERS  RECENTLY  Issuife 


CHILDREN 


IS  CERTIFICATES 

vc    to   thank  you 


Y  THE  NATIONAL  WAR  SAVINGS  COMMITTEE 


WAR  SAVINGS  185 

terial  and  labour  for  the  struggle.  War  savings 
among  the  people  is  not  only  essential  to  secure 
the  money  needed — it  is  far  more  essential  from 
the  point  of  view  of  securing  the  cutting  down 
of  the  consumption  of  goods  and  labour  by  our 
peoples. 

Economists  in  peace  time  argue  over  what  is 
termed  "luxury"  expenditure,  the  wasteful  ex- 
penditure of  peace.  War  expenditure  may  be 
correctly  termed  wasteful  to  a  very  great  extent, 
and  no  country  can  carry  both  of  these  expendi- 
tures and  remain  solvent.  Luxury  expenditure 
should  be  entirely  eliminated  and  the  material 
and  labour  which  was  absorbed  by  it  should  go 
into  the  war.  If  'this  could  be  done  completely, 
little  damage  would  be  done  to  the  nation's  eco- 
nomic position.  The  thing  to  be  clearly  realized 
is  that  all  the  productive  effort  of  the  nation  is 
needed  for  three  things — the  carrying  on  of  the 
war — the  production  of  necessaries  and  the 
manufacture  of  goods  for  export.  Every  civilian 
who  uses  material  and  labour  unnecessarily 
makes  these  tasks  harder  and  goes  into  the  mar- 


186  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

kets  as  an  unfair  competitor  of  the  Government. 
Every  man  and  woman  who  saves  five  dollars 
and  lends  it  to  their  country  give  their  country 
what  is  far  more  important  than  the  five  dollars. 
They  transfer  to  the  Government  the  five  dollars 
worth  of  material  and  labour  they  could  have 
used  up  if  they  had  spent  it  on  themselves  and 
that  is  its  real  value.  This  means  the  needful 
purchases  of  the  State  are  substituted  for,  in- 
stead of  added  to,  the  purchases  of  the  civilian. 

Further,  the  influence  of  economy  in  prevent- 
ing undue  inflation  of  currency  and  consequent 
high  prices  should  be  realized.  A  certain  amount 
of  high  prices  in  war  is  inevitable  but  if  civilians 
buy  extravagantly,  competition  becomes  intense 
and  prices  rise  beyond  all  need.  The  supplies 
are  limited — in  our  case  that  is  greatly  added  to 
by  the  submarine  menace — and  the  demands  of 
the  Government  are  enormous.  The  competition 
between  the  Government  and  the  people  grows 
more  and  more  intense.  Prices  go  still  higher. 
The  Government  pays  more  than  it  should  and 
so  do  the  people.  Higher  wages  are  demanded 


WAR  SAVINGS  187 

with  consequent  higher  prices,  and  so  you  get 
a  vicious  circle  that  gets  more  and  more  dan- 
gerous. If  the  civilian  will  relieve  this  pressure 
fry  demanding  less,  and  cutting  down  his  ex- 
penditure, prices  will  become  more  reasonable 
and  the  cost  of  the  war  less. 

The  chief  difficulty  in  time  of  war  is  to  make 
people  realize  the  need  of  economy  when  they 
have,  as  our  people  have,  more  money  than  ever 
before,  when  enormous  sums  of  money  pour  out 
ceaselessly  to  the  people  from  the  Government. 
They  have  to  realize  the  fundamental  difference 
between  peace  prosperity  and  war  prosperity. 
Peace  prosperity  comes  from  the  creation  of 
wealth.  War  prosperity  comes  from  the  dissi- 
pation of  wealth — the  use  of  all  resources — the 
pledging  of  credits.  It  is  just  as  if  we,  as  indi- 
viduals, to  meet  a  personal  crisis,  took  all  our 
personal  savings  and  borrowed  all  we  could  and 
proceeded  to  spend  it.  The  wise  man  or  woman 
will  save  all  of  it  they  can  and  realize  that  every 
unnecessary  dollar  spent  helps  the  enemy.  No 
civilian  in  a  struggle  of  this  kind  has  any  moral 


188  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

right  to  more  than  necessary  things.  We  want 
every  man  and  woman  to  have  all  they  need  for 
their  efficiency.  We  would  not  say  for  one  mo- 
ment that  every  one  can  save,  and  money  spent 
on  clothing  and  feeding  the  children  and  keeping 
the  home  comfortable  is  well  spent,  but  nothing 
should  be  wasted. 

The  standard  in  this  matter  should  be  set  by 
the  rich,  on  whom  rests  the  greatest  responsibil- 
ity, moral  and  social.  It  is  impossible  to  expect 
workers  to  save  if  they  see  luxury  and  extrava- 
gance everywhere  round  them.  One  cannot  too 
strongly  say  that. 

The  civilians  who  work  hard  to  produce,  who 
have  done  heavy  toil  in  munitions  and  industry, 
and  receive  good  wages  and  then  go  out  and 
spend  it  lavishly  might  just  as  well  have  slacked 
at  their  work.  The  ultimate  effect  is  the  same. 
They  have  undone  the  good  they  did.  It  is  as  if 
soldiers  having  won  a  trench  let  the  Germans 
come  back  into  it. 

People  of  small  means  often  feel  that  all  they 
can  save  is  so  small  that  it  cannot  really  help 


WAR  SAVINGS  189 

and  wonder  if  the  effort  to  save  is  worth  while, 
but  if  every  person  in  America  saved  2  cents  a 
day,  it  would  amount  to  $730,000,000  in  a  year, 
and  that  would  find  a  great  deal  of  munitions. 

Finding  the  money  by  saving  finds  everything, 
releases  men  for  the  army,  finds  labour  and 
money  for  munitions,  finds  labour  for  ships  and 
relieves  the  demands  on  tonnage,  finds  supplies. 
It  is  the  fundamental  service  of  the  civilian,  and 
no  good  citizen  wants  luxuries  while  soldiers 
and  sailors  need  clothes  and  guns  and  ships  and 
munitions. 

Everybody,  man,  woman,  and  child,  can  join 
the  great  financial  army  and  march  behind  our 
men,  and  women  have  done  with  us  and  can  do 
everywhere  a  great  work  in  this.  Women  are 
on  our  National  Committee  and  doing  a  great 
deal  of  its  organization.  Our  men  in  the 
trenches,  in  the  air,  at  sea,  endure  for  us  what 
we  would  have  said  before  the  war  was  humanly 
unendurable.  They  pay  for  our  freedom  with  a 
great  price — and  we  send  them  out  to  pay  it — 
in  death,  disablement,  suffering  and  sacrifice. 


190  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

To  fail  in  our  duty  behind  them  would  be  the 
great  betrayal. 

Our  treasures  are  very  small  things  compared 
with  our  men  Shall  we  give  them  and  not  our 
money? 


PURCHASING 

POWER    OF 

YOUR  MONET 

BY  INVESTING 

IT  IN 

WAR  SAYINGS 
CERTIFICATES 


AUTOMATICALLY 
CROWS  INTO 


IN  FIVE  YEARS 


Before  You  Spend. 

Before  you  spend 
money  on  goods  or 
labourtbat  is  not  really 
necessary,  remember 

—that  every  penny' 
thus  spent  is  divert- 
ing somebody's 
work  from  (he 
channels  of 
National  necessity. 

—that  only  a  limited 
supply  of  labour 
and  material  is 
available,  and  that 
the  Country's  need 
of  these  is  vital  and 
urgent. 

—that  your  own  per- 
sonal welfare  is 
bound  up  with  the 
welfare  of  your 
Country,  and  that 
by  saving  and 
economising  now, 
you  ensure  both. 

There  are  many  ways  of 
saving :  the  best  way  is 
to  invest  your  money  in 
War  Savings  Certificates. 
The  interest  is  generous 
— the  security  sound—the 
method  simplicity  itself. 

See  how  much  you 
can  save  if  you  really  set 
your  mind  to  it. 


THE  NATIONAL  WAR 
SAVINGS  COMMITTEE, 

Salubury  Sq .,  London,  E.C.4 


A  BOOKMARK,  ISSUED  BY  N.  W.  S.  C. 


How  I5'6 


TRANSFER  your  pur- 
chasing  power    to    the 
State,  and   make   your 
money  earn  more  money  by 
investing  it  now  in  War  Savings 
Certificates. 

A  Certificate  bought  for  15/6 
increase*  in  value  each  year  until  at 
the  end  of  Eve  years  it  can  be  cashed 
for  a  sovereign.  The  chart  given 
below  show*  the  progressive  value  of 
•  Certificate  after  each  completed  year. 

You  can  purchase  a  Certificate 
in  small  weekly  sums,  if  you  wish, 
by  joining  a  War  Savings  Associa- 
tion. Any  Post  Office,  Bank  or 
Local  War  Savings  Committee  will 
give  you  particulars. 

Start  to-day. 


3id 
year 


4th 


5tK 


Issutd  t>y 

The   NATIONAL    WAR    SAVINGS 
COMMITTEE. 


Think  Before 
You  Spend. 

Before  you  buy  an)' article 
or  service  ask  yourself  "Is 
this  really  necessary?" 

If  you  cannot,  without 
doubt,  or  hesitation, 
answer  "Yes"— save  the 
money  and  invest  it  in 

WAR  SAVINGS 
CERTIFICATES 

Because 

every  penny  you  spend  on 
unnecessary  things  means  a 

loss  t  o  theCountryof  materials 
'and  labour  urgently  needed 
for  National  purposes. 

Because 

the  money  you  save  now  will 
be  more  useful  to  you  later  on 
and,  if  it  is  invested  in  War 
Savings  Certificates,  it  will  be 
earning  more  money  for  you 
all  the  while  it  remains  in- 
vested. 

You  can  obtain  War 
Savings  Certificates 
through  any  Post  Office 
or  Bank,  or  you  can 
join  a  War  Savings 
Association. 

BE  A  WAR  SAVER 


THE    NATIONAL   WAR 
SAVINGS  COMMITTEE, 

Salisbury  Sq.,  London,  E.G.  4 


ANOTHER  BOOKMARK 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CON- 
SERVATION 

"The  whole  country  ought  to  realise  that  we 
are  a  beleaguered  city." 
— The  President  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture. 

"If  you  have  any  belief  in  the  cause  for  which 
thousands  of  your  fellow-countrymen  have  laid 
down  their  lives,  you  will  scrape  and  scrape  and 
scrape,  you  will  go  in  old  clothes,  and  old  boots, 
and  old  ties  until  such  a  mass  of  treasure  be  gar- 
nered into  the  coffers  of  the  Government  as  to 
secure  at  the  end  of  all  this  tangle  of  misery  a 
real  and  lasting  settlement  for  Europe." 

— The  President  of  the  Board  of  Education. 


13 


CHAPTER  X 

FOOD  PRODUCTION   AND  CON- 
SERVATION 

IN  this  great  struggle  the  food  question  as- 
sumes greater  and  greater  importance. 

The  production  of  food  has  been  affected 
by  the  raising  of  great  armies — more  than  twenty 
million  men  are  in  arms  in  Europe — by  the  feed- 
ing of  armies,  for  which  we  must,  of  necessity, 
provide  food  in  excess  of  what  these  men  would 
need  in  civil  life.  The  ability  to  get  the  food  has 
been  made  difficult  for  us  by  the  submarine  war- 
fare. Thousands  of  tons  of  wheat  lie  in  Aus- 
tralia, but  we  cannot  afford  ships  to  bring  it. 
Tea  has  been  very  short  in  England,  though 
again  there  are  thousands  of  tons  waiting  in 
India.  The  most  urgent  need  of  the  Allies  is  for 
ships  and  more  ships.  There  has  been  great  loss 
of  tonnage  and  the  needs  of  the  Army  and  Navy 
absorb  the  service  of  vast  numbers  of  the  avail- 
able ships.  We  have  moved  13,000,000  men  since 


196  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

war  broke  out,  and  the  supplies  and  munitions 
they  have  needed,  to  our  many  fronts.  Cease- 
lessly we  move  the  wounded.  We  have  to  bring 
into  Britain  half  our  food.  That  we  have  done 
this,  has  been  due  to  the  British  Navy  and  the 
Reserves — the  patrols  and  the  mine  sweepers— 
the  Fringes  of  the  Fleet — and  not  least,  the  mer- 
chant seaman.  About  6,000  merchantmen  have 
been  killed  by  the  enemy,  some  with  diabolical 
cruelty.  These  men  are  torpedoed  and  come  into 
port,  and  go  for  another  ship  at  once.  On  the 
ship  on  which  I  crossed  there  were  seamen  who 
had  been  torpedoed  three  times.  In  its  submarine 
warfare  the  enemy  has  broken  every  interna- 
tional and  human  law — has  used  "frightfulness" 
to  its  fullest  extent,  and  the  answer  of  our  mer- 
chant seamen  is  to  go  to  sea  again  as  soon  as  the 
ship  is  ready,  and  the  older  men,  who  had  retired, 
return  to  sea.  The  seaman  of  our  country  know 
the  enemy.  It  was  our  Seamen's  Union  that 
refused  to  carry  the  Peace  Delegates  to  Stock- 
holm, and  it  is  they  and  our  fishermen  who,  in 
the  Reserves,  man  the  patrols  and  mine  sweepers, 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    197 

and  who,  on  our  little  drifters  and  trawlers,  have 
fought  the  enemy's  big  destroyers — fought  till 
they  went  down,  refusing  to  surrender. 

It  is  not  strange  that  the  best-liked  poster  in 
our  Food  Crusade,  and  the  one  people  want 
everywhere,  is  a  simple  drawing  of  a  merchant 
seaman,  and  under  it  the  words,  "We  risk  our 
lives  to  bring  you  food.  It  is  up  to  you  not  to 
waste  it." 

The  countries  that  can  succeed  best  in  solving 
the  food  question  are  the  countries  that  will  win, 
and  the  food  problem  will  not  cease,  any  more 
than  many  others,  when  peace  is  declared. 

Very  early  in  the  war,  existing  organizations, 
such  as  the  National  Food  Reform  Association, 
and  newly  created  ones,  the  National  Food  Econ- 
omy League  and  the  Patriotic  Food  League  of 
Scotland,  did  a  great  deal  of  active  work  on  food 
saving.  They  aimed  at  instructing  in  the  scien- 
tific principles  of  the  economical  use  of  food,  and 
issued  admirable  leaflets  and  Handbooks  for 
Housewives  and  Cookery  Books.  A  series  of  Ex- 
hibitions, often  described  as  "Patriotic  House- 


198  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

keeping  Exhibitions"  were  held  in  different  parts 
of  the  country,  organized  generally  by  women's 
societies.  One  of  the  early  ones  I  organized  in 
Salisbury.  Later,  the  Public  Trustee  was  chair- 
man of  an  Official  Committee,  which  organized 
large  Exhibitions  in  London  and  throughout  the 
country.  These  Exhibitions  had  stalls  showing 
food  values  with  specimens,  had  exhibits  of  the 
most  economical  cooking  stoves  and  arrange- 
ments, and  exhibited  every  manner  of  time  and 
labour  saving  device.  They  had  wonderful  ex- 
hibits of  clothes  for  children  made  from  old 
clothes  of  grown-ups,  of  marvellous  dresses  and 
little  jerseys  and  caps  and  scarfs  made  from  legs 
of  old  stockings.  There  were  charming  dresses 
and  underclothing  made  of  the  very  simplest  ma- 
terials and  decorated  artistically  with  stitching 
and  embroidery.  These  were  made  by  school 
girls  of  seven  and  upwards  for  themselves,  and 
the  Glasgow  School  of  Art's  work,  done  in 
schools  there,  was  perfectly  beautiful.  The  cost 
was  shown  and  it  was  incredibly  small.  All  sorts 
of  things  for  the  household  in  simple  carpentry 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    199 

and  upholstery,  using  up  boxes  and  wood,  were 
shown,  and  old  tins  were  converted  into  all  sorts 
of  useful  household  things.  Facts  as  to  waste 
were  made  as  striking  as  possible  by  demonstra- 
tion. Every  exhibition  had  a  War  Savings  Stall 
and  Certificates  were  often  sold  at  these  in  large 
numbers,  the  Queen  buying  the  first  sold  at  the 
first  London  Exhibition. 

The  great  feature  of  the  Exhibitions  was  Food 
Saving  and  Conservation.  Demonstrations  in 
cooking  and  in  hay-box  cooking,  were  given  and 
these  were  attended  by  thousands  of  women,  Miss 
Petty,  "The  Pudding  Lady,"  being  a  specially 
attractive  demonstrator.  She  was  called  "The 
Pudding  Lady,"  first  by  little  children  in  London 
in  the  East  End,  where  she  used  to  go  into  the 
homes,  and  show  them  how  to  cook  on  their  own 
fires,  and  with  their  own  meagre  possessions. 
When  she  came  there  was  pudding,  so  her  title 
came  as  a  result. 

We  always  included  exhibits  and  posters  on 
the  care  of  the  babies  and  the  children.  Lectures 


200  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

on  vegetable  and  potato  growing,  bee  and  poultry 
keeping,  etc.,  were  also  given. 

There  were  competitions  in  connection  with 
the  Exhibitions — prizes  were  offered  for  the  best 
cake — for  the  best  war  bread — for  the  best  din- 
ners for  a  family  at  a  small  cost — for  the  best 
weekly  budgets  of  different  small  incomes — for 
the  best  blouse  and  dress  made  at  a  small  cost, 
etc.,  and  these  were  extremely  popular.  The 
prizes  were  generally  War  Savings  Certificates 
or  labour-saving  devices. 

From  the  Governmental  point  of  view  the 
Food  work  is  in  two  great  divisions :  Food  Pro- 
duction, which  is  worked  by  the  Food  Production 
Department  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture,  of 
which  the  Women's  Branch  is  doing  the  work  of 
placing  women  on  the  land.  It  not  only  works 
on  the  production  of  more  food  but  it  organizes 
the  conservation  of  food,  such  as  fruit  bottling, 
and  preserving  fruit,  and  vegetable  and  fruit 
drying,  etc. 

A  very  great  deal  has  been  done  in  demon- 
strating how  to  conserve  fruit  and  vegetables  all 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    201 

over  the  country  and  this  has  been  done  to  an 
extent  hitherto  quite  unreached.  Co-operative 
work  has  been  done  and  most  interesting  experi- 
ments made.  The  glass  bottles  necessary  have 
been  secured  by  the  Department,  and  are  sold  by 
them  to  those  doing  the  conservation  at  a  fixed 
price.  Last  summer  the  Sugar  Commission  also 
arranged  to  sell  sufficient  sugar  for  making  pre- 
serves to  those  people  who  grow  their  own  fruit. 
This  they  succeeded  in  doing  to  a  very  large 
extent — which  was  a  most  valuable  conservation. 

The  Ministry  of  Food  is  the  other  great  body 
dealing  with  all  food  problems  of  supply,  price, 
regulations,  and  propaganda. 

Lord  Khondda  is  our  Food  Controller.  Our 
first  Controller  was  Lord  Devonport.  Food  con- 
trol is  the  most  unpopular  work  in  any  country 
and  a  Food  Controller  deserves  the  help,  sym- 
pathy and  support  of  every  good  citizen.  No 
Food  Controller,  no  matter  how  able,  and  no 
matter  how  great  and  comprehensive  his  powers 
are,  can  do  his  work  without  the  co-operation  of 
the  people. 


202  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Lord  Rhondda's  powers  are  very  great  as  to 
control  of  supplies,  prices  and  regulations.  The 
price  of  the  four  pound  loaf  (and  it  must  be  four 
pounds)  is  fixed  by  our  Government  at  18  cents 
and  the  loss  is  borne  by  the  Government. 

The  prices  of  meat,  beans,  cheese,  tea,  sugar, 
milk,  and  the  profits  on  other  articles  are  reg- 
ulated by  the  Ministry.  When  Lord  Devonport 
was  Food  Controller  we  had  courses  at  lunch 
and  dinner  limited — a  policy  most  people  felt  to 
be  stupid  as  it  meant  a  run  on  staple  foods— 
and  it  was  abandoned  by  Lord  Rhondda.  We  had 
meatless  days,  which  also  have  been  stopped. 
We  found  it  difficult  to  do,  and  impossible  to 
regulate.  We  had  many  potatoless  days  last 
spring — by  regulation  in  the  restaurants — per- 
force by  most  of  us  in  towns  where  they  were 
almost  impossible  to  get,  but  this  year  we  have 
the  biggest  potato  crop  we  have  had. 

In  restaurants  and  hotels  now  supplies  are 
regulated.  No  one  can  have  more  than  two 
ounces  of  bread  at  any  meal,  and  the  amount  of 
flour  and  sugar  supplied  is  strictly  rationed  to 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    203 

the  hotels,  according  to  the  number  served.  Not 
more  than  five  ounces  of  meat  (before  cooking) 
can  be  served  at  any  meal.  These  regulations  are 
strictly  enforced,  and  the  duty  of  seeing  all  the 
regulations  are  carried  out,  and  all  the  work 
done,  devolves  upon  the  Local  Food  Control  Com- 
mittees which  have  been  set  up  all  over  the 
country  under  the  Ministry,  by  the  local  author- 
ities. On  every  such  Committee  there  must  be 
women.  They  fix  prices  for  milk,  etc.,  and  ini- 
tiate prosecutions  for  infringements  of  the  laws 
regulating  food. 

No  white  flour  is  sold  or  used  in  Britain.  The 
mills  are  all  controlled  by  the  Government  and 
all  flour  is  now  war  grade,  which  means  it  is 
made  of  about  70  per  cent  white  flour  and  other 
grains,  rye,  corn  (which  we  call  maize),  barley, 
rice-flour,  etc.,  are  added.  We  expect  to  mill 
potato  flour  this  year.  Oatmeal  has  a  fixed  price, 
9  cents  a  pound,  in  Scotland,  10  cents  in  Eng- 
land. No  fancy  pastries,  no  icing  on  cakes  and 
no  fancy  bread  may  be  made.  Only  two  shapes 
of  loaf  are  allowed — the  tin  loaf  and  the  Coburg. 


204  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Cakes  must  only  have  15  per  cent  sugar  and  30 
per  cent  war  grade  flour.  Buns  and  scones  and 
biscuits  have  regulations  as  to  making,  also. 

Butter  is  very  scarce  and  margarine  supplies 
not  always  big  enough,  and  we  have  tea  and  sugar 
and  margerine  queues  in  our  big  towns — women 
standing  in  long  rows  waiting.  It  is  an  intoler- 
able waste  of  time — and  yet  it  seems  difficult  to 
get  it  managed  otherwise. 

The  woman  in  the  home  in  our  country  with 
high  prices,  want  of  supplies,  and  her  desire  to 
economise  has  had  a  busy  and  full  time,  but  our 
people  are  quite  well  fed.  Naturally  enough, 
considering  the  hard  work  we  are  all  doing,  our 
people  are  really  using  more,  not  less  food,  but 
waste  is  being  fought  very  well. 

Waste  is  a  punishable  offence  and  if  you  throw 
away  bread  or  any  good  food,  you  will  be  pro- 
ceeded against,  as  many  have  been,  and  fined 
40/-  to  £100.  No  bread  must  be  sold  that  is 
not  twelve  hours  baked.  New  bread  is  extrava- 
gant in  cutting  and  people  eat  more.  It  is  in- 
teresting to  note  that  in  one  period  of  the  Na- 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    205 

poleonic  wars  we  did  the  same  thing  and  ate  no 
new  bread. 

Food  hoarding  is  an  offence  and  the  food  is 
commandeered  and  the  hoarder  punished.  Sev- 
eral people  have  been  fined  £50  and  upwards. 

The  work  of  the  Army  in  economizing  food  has 
been  a  great  work.  Rations  have  been  cut  down 
and  much  more  carefully  dealt  with.  The  use 
of  waste  products  has  become  a  science.  All  the 
fats  are  saved — even  the  fats  in  water  used  in 
washing  dishes  are  trapped  and  saved.  The  fats 
are  used  to  make  glycerine,  and  last  year  the 
Army  saved  enough  waste  fat  to  make  glycerine 
for  18,000,000  shells.  Fats  and  scraps  for  pigs, 
and  bones,  etc.,  are  all  sold  and  one- third  of  the 
money  goes  back  to  the  men's  messing  funds  to 
buy  additional  foods  and  every  camp  tries  to  beat 
the  other  in  its  care  and  efficiency  and  the  women 
cooks  are  doing  admirably  in  this  work. 

Officers  of  the  Navy  and  Army  are  only  per- 
mitted to  spend  a  certain  amount  on  meals  in 
restaurants  and  hotels — 3/6  for  lunch  and  5/6 
for  dinner  and  1/6  for  tea. 


20G  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  other  side  of  the  Food  Campaign  is  the 
propaganda  and  educative  work.  Lord  Rhondda 
has  two  women  Co-Directors  with  him — Mrs. 
C.  S.  Peel  and  Mrs.  M.  Pember  Reeves — in  the 
Ministry  of  Food,  and  they  help  in  the  whole 
work  and  very  specially  with  the  educational  and 
propaganda  work,  and  with  the  work  of  com- 
munal feeding. 

A  number  of  communal  kitchens  have  been 
established  with  great  success — many  being  in 
London.  At  these  thousands  of  meals  are  pre- 
pared— soups  and  stews,  fish,  and  meats,  and 
puddings,  every  variety  of  dishes,  and  the  pur- 
chasers come  to  the  kitchens  and  bring  plates 
and  jugs  to  carry  away  the  food.  Soups  are  sold 
from  2  to  4  cents  for  a  jugful,  and  other  things 
in  proportion.  These  are  established  under 
official  recognition,  the  Municipalities  in  most 
cases  providing  the  initial  cost.  The  prices  paid 
cover  the  cost  of  food  and  cooking,  and  the 
service  is  practically  all  voluntary. 

The  first  propaganda  work  was,  as  I  have  said, 
done  by  the  War  Savings  Committees,  and  our 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION     207 

big  task  was  to  try  to  make  our  people  realize 
how  undesirable  it  is  to  have  to  resort  to  com- 
pulsory rationing.  We  are  rationed  on  sugar 
and  we  do  not  want  to  adopt  more  compulsory 
rationing  than  is  necessary.  Compulsory  ra- 
tioning, in  some  people's  minds,  seems  to  ensure 
supplies.  It  does  not  and  where,  under  volun- 
tary rationing,  people  go  round  and  find  other 
food  and  get  along  with  the  supplies  there  are, 
under  compulsory  rationing  there  would  always 
be  a  tendency  to  demand  their  ration  and  to 
make  trouble  about  the  lack  of  any  one  com- 
modity in  it. 

Compulsory  rationing  to  be  workable  must  be 
a  simple  scheme,  and  no  overhead  ration  of 
bread,  for  example,  is  just.  The  needs  of  workers 
vary  and  so  do  the  needs  of  individuals,  and 
bread  is  the  staple  food  of  our  poorer  classes. 
They  have  less  variety  of  foods  and  need  more 
bread  than  the  better-off  people.  Compulsory 
rationing  may  have  to  come,  but  most  of  us  are 
determined  it  will  not  come  till  it  is  really  un- 
avoidable and  we  are  appealing  to  our  people 


208  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

to  prevent  that,  and  masses  of  them  are  econom- 
izing and  saving  in  a  manner  worthy  of  the 
greatest  praise. 

The  rationing  we  appealed  to  our  people  to 
get  down  to,  was  three  pounds  of  flour  per  head 
in  the  week,  2%  Ibs.  of  meat  and  %  lb.  sugar. 

The  King's  Pledge,  which  we  had  signed  by 
those  willing  to  do  this,  all  over  the  country, 
pledged  people  to  cut  down  their  consumption 
of  grain  by  one-quarter  in  the  household,  and 
the  King's  Proclamation  urged  this,  and  econ- 
omies in  grain  and  horse  feeding. 

An  old  Proclamation  of  the  18th  century  ap- 
pealed to  our  people  to  cut  down  their  consump- 
tion of  their  grains  by  one-third  and  was  almost 
identical  in  form,  and  copies  signed  by  Edmund 
Burke  and  other  famous  people  were  shown  in 
our  Thrift  Exhibitions  in  Buckinghamshire. 

We  arranged  meetings  for  the  maids  of  house- 
holds in  big  groups  to  explain  the  need  and 
meaning  of  economy  in  food  with  great  success. 
Every  head  of  a  household  knows  that  the  maids 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION    209 

can  make  or  mar  one's  efforts  to  save  food,  and 
we  have  found  many  of  ours  admirable,  and  will- 
ing to  do  wonders  in  the  way  of  economy  and 


saving. 


If  compulsory  rationing  in  more  than  sugar 
comes  as  it  may,  the  basis  of  rationing  will,  we 
believe,  be  worked  out  with  as  much  considera- 
tion as  possible  of  the  needs  of  the  workers. 

Our  Co-operative  movement  is,  in  a  simple  way 
rationing  its  buyers,  by  regulating  supplies,  and 
it  is  in  voluntary  work  of  that  kind,  which  is  go- 
ing on  extensively,  and  in  the  people's  own  efforts 
and  economies  that  our  great  hope  lies. 

The  Ministry  of  Food  arranges  meetings  and 
sends  speakers  to  associations  and  bodies  of 
every  kind.  The  schools  are  very  extensively 
used  for  demonstrations  to  which  the  parents  are 
invited.  The  children  are  talked  to  and  write 
essays  on  food  and  general  saving  and  in  these, 
one  litle  girl  of  seven  told  us,  "If  you  don't  throw 
away  your  crusts,  you  will  beat  the  Kaiser,"  and 
another  small  boy  said,  "Boys  should  give  up 
14 


210  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

sliding  for  the  war,  as  it  wears  out  their  boots," 
and  another  said,  "We  should  not  go  to  picture 
houses  so  much — once  a  week  is  quite  often 
enough/'  One  little  child  who  had  been  coached 
at  school  returned  home  to  see  a  baby  sister  of 
two  throw  away  a  big  crust  and  said,  "If  Lord 
Rhondda  was  here,  wouldn't  he  give  you  a  row." 
So  the  root  of  the  matter  seems  to  be  in  the  youth 
of  our  country  and  the  sweetness  and  willingness 
of  their  sacrifices  is  very  fragrant.  They  sing 
about  saving  bread  and  saving  pennies,  and  to 
hear  a  choir  of  Welsh  children  sing  these  songs, 
with  a  vigour  and  enjoyment  that  is  infectious, 
is  quite  delightful. 

Most  of  our  big  girls'  schools  have  given  up 
buying  sweets,  and  when  they  get  gifts  of  them 
send  them  to  the  prisoners  and  the  soldiers.  We 
have,  of  course,  restricted  our  manufacture  of 
sweets  very  much. 

Our  school  children  have,  in  addition,  worked 
enormous  numbers  of  school  gardens  and  grown 
tons  of  potatoes  and  vegetables. 

Our  distilleries  are  taken  over  by  the  Govern- 


FOOD  PRODUCTION  AND  CONSERVATION     211 

ment  for  spirits  for  munitions  and  our  beer  is  cut 
down  very  greatly.  Travelling  kitchens  go  out 
from  the  Ministry  of  Food  also  and  do  demon- 
strations in  villages  and  country  districts  on 
cooking  and  conservation.  The  Ministry  issues 
leaflets  of  recipes  and  instructions  in  cooking 
and  has  a  special  Win  the  War  Cookery  Book. 
Articles  are  also  published  on  food  values  and 
quite  a  number  of  people  begin  to  understand 
something  about  .calories,  even  though  they  are 
rather  vague  about  what  it  all  means. 

Naturally  most  of  the  Food  speaking  and  work 
is  done  by  women  though  food  control  and  saving 
is  men's  and  women's  work. 

This  year  we  saved  grain  by  collecting  the 
horse  chestnuts,  a  work  that  was  done  by  the 
school  children.  These  are  crushed  and  the  oil 
used  for  munitions  and  it  was  reckoned  we  could 
save  tens  of  thousands  of  tons  of  grain  by  doing 
this. 

A  wonderful  work  in  the  use  of  waste  ma- 
terials has  been  the  work  of  the  Glove  Waistcoat 
Society,  to  which  American  women  have  kindly 


212  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

sent  old  gloves.  Old  gloves  are  cleaned,  the 
fingers  are  cut  off,  the  other  big  pieces  stitched 
together  and  cut  into  waistcoats  and  backed  by 
linenette.  These  are  sold  to  the  soldiers  and 
sailors  for  wear  under  their  tunics  and  are  most 
beautifully  light  and  windproof.  The  fingers  of 
kid  gloves  are  made  into  glue,  of  wash  leather 
gloves  into  rubbers  for  household  use.  The  big 
pieces  of  linenette  over  are  made  into  dust  sheets 
and  the  small  scraps  go  to  stuff  mattresses  for 
a  Babies'  Home.  The  buttons  are  carded  and 
sold  and  the  making  up  provides  work  for  dis- 
tressed elderly  women.  It  needs  no  funds — it  is 
self-supporting — it  only  needs  old  gloves. 

In  preventing  waste  and  in  food  production 
and  conservation,  our  people  have  learned  much, 
and  a  very  great  deal  of  admirable  work  is  being 
done. 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY 
CORPS 

"Now  every  signaller  was  a  fine  Waac, 
And  a  very  fine  Waac  was  she — e." 

"Soldier  and  Sailor,  too." 


CHAPTER  XI 

THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY 
CORPS 

THE  Waacs  is  the  name  we  all  know  them 
by  and  shall,  it  seems,  continue  to.    It  will 
have  to  go  into  future  dictionaries  beside 
Anzac. 

The  deeds  .of  the  Anzacs  in  Gallipoli  and 
France  are  immortalised  in  many  records — 
magnificently  in  John  Masefield's  "Gallipoli"— 
an  epic  in  its  simplicity.  The  work  of  the  Waacs 
is  the  work  of  support  and  substitution  and  its 
records  only  begin  to  be  made. 

The  Women's  Army  Auxiliary  Corps  is  an 
official  creation  of  this  year.  At  the  Women's 
Service  Demonstration  in  the  Albert  Hall  in 
January,  1917,  Lord  Derby  asked  for  Women 
for  clerical  service  in  the  army  and  official  ap- 
peals were  issued  in  February  and  repeatedly 
since  that  time,  and  now  all  over  the  country  we 
have  Recruiting  Committees  organizing  meetings 


216  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

and  securing  recruits.     They  are  recruiting  at 
the  rate  of  10,000  a  month. 

The  Waacs  had  many  forerunners  in  some  of 
our  voluntary  organizations,  in  the  Women's  Re- 
serve Ambulance,  of  "The  Green  Cross  Society," 
attached  to  the  National  Motor  Volunteers — the 
Women's  Volunteer  Reserve — the  Women's  Le- 
gion— the  Women's  Auxiliary  Force  and  the 
Women  Signallers  Territorial  Corps.  The 
Women's  Signallers  Corps  had  as  Commandant- 
in-Chief  Mrs.  E.  J.  Parker — Lord  Kitchener's 
sister.  They  believed  women  should  be  trained 
in  every  branch  of  signalling  and  that  men  could 
be  released  for  the  firing  line  by  women  taking 
over  signalling  work  at  fixed  stations.  Their 
prediction  came  true  more  than  two  years  later, 
for  today  they  are  in  France.  They  drilled  and 
trained  the  women  in  all  the  branches  of  signal- 
ling semaphore — flags,  mechanical  arms;  and  in 
Morse — flags,  airline  and  cable,  sounder  (teleg- 
raphy), buzzer,  wireless,  whistle,  lamp  and  helio- 
graph. They  also  learned  map  reading — the 
most  fascinating  of  accomplishments.  This 


W.  A.  A.  Cs.  ON  THE  MARCH 


WOMEN  OF  THE  RESERVE  AMBULANCE 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   217 

Corps  had  the  distinction  of  introducing  "wire- 
less" for  women  in  England  in  connection  with 
its  Headquarters  training  school.  When  one  of 
the  Corps  later  accepted  a  splendid  appointment 
as  wireless  instructor  at  a  wireless  telegraph 
college — the  Corps  was  duly  elated. 

The  Women's  Reserve  Ambulance  had  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  the  first  ambulance  on  the  scene 
in  the  first  serious  Zeppelin  Eaid  in  London 
(September,  1915).  They  came  to  where  the 
first  bombs  fell,  killing  and  wounding,  and  did 
the  work  of  rescue,  and  when  another  ambulance 
arrived  later,  "Thanks,"  said  the  police,  "the 
ladies  have  done  this  job." 

They  worked  assisting  the  War  Hospital 
Supply  Depots,  that  wonderful  organization  run 
by  Miss  MacCaul,  they  provided  orderlies  to 
serve  the  meals  and  act  as  housemaids,  and  make 
the  men  welcome  at  Peel  House,  one  of  the  Ca- 
nadian Clubs.  Others  helped  in  Hospitals,  wash- 
ing up  and  doing  other  work. 

Others  met  and  moved  wounded — others  at 
night  took  the  soldiers  to  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  huts. 


218  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  Women's  Volunteer  Reserve,  too,  seemed  to 
be  everywhere  doing  all  sorts  of  useful,  helpful 
things — disciplined,  ready,  and  trained.  The 
Women's  Legion  led  the  way  in  providing  cooks 
and  waitresses  for  camps  and  sent  out  1,200  of 
these  inside  a  year.  The  first  convalescent  camp 
to  have  all  its  cooking  and  serving  done  by 
women  was  managed — admirably,  too — by  the 
Women's  Legion,  so  the  Waacs  had  many  volun- 
tary forerunners,  who  are  mostly  in  it  and 
amalgamated  with  it  now. 

The  Waacs  are  a  part  of  the  Army  organiza- 
tion— are  in  His  Majesty's  Forces  and  when  a 
girl  joins  she  is  subject  to  army  rules  and  reg- 
ulations. They  are  working  now  in  large  num- 
bers in  England  and  in  France,  at  all  the  base 
towns,  and  in  quiet  places,  where  things  that 
matter  are  planned  and  initiated. 

The  girl  who  goes  to  France  knows  she  is  going 
to  possible  danger  by  being  handed,  before  she 
goes,  her  two  identification  discs. 

For  France,  no  woman  under  twenty  or  over 
forty  is  eligible.  After  volunteering,  they  are 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   219 

chosen  by  Selection  Boards  and  medically  ex- 
amined. They  receive  a  grant  for  their  uni- 
forms. The  workers  wear  a  khaki  coat-frock — 
a  very  sensible  garment — brown  shoes  and  soft 
hat  and  a  great  coat.  At  the  end  of  a  year  they 
get  a  £5  ($25)  bonus  on  renewing  their  contracts, 
and  they  get  a  fortnight's  leave  in  a  year. 

Their  payment  is  not  high — it  works  out  about 
the  same  as  a  soldier's  when  everything  is  paid — 
and  that,  with  us,  is  just  over  25  cents  a  day,  so 
the  khaki  girl,  like  the  soldier,  does  not  work  for 
the  money. 

The  whole  organization  is  officered  and  di- 
rected by  women.  Mrs.  Chalmers  Watson,  M.D., 
C.  B.  E.,  is  the  Chief  Controller,  with  Miss  Mac- 
Queen  as  Assistant  Chief  Controller.  Under 
them  are  the  Controllers — Area,  Recruiting,  etc., 
and  the  officer  in  charge  of  a  unit  is  called  an 
Administrator,  and  under  her  are  deputy  ad- 
ministrators and  assistant-administrators.  They 
are  not  given  Military  titles  and  do  not  hold  com- 
missions, but  their  appointments  are  gazetted  in 
the  ordinary  way.  There  is  always  a  strong  feel- 


220  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

ing  in  England  that  Military  and  Naval  titles 
should  be  strictly  reserved. 

The  equivalent  of  a  sergeant  is  a  "forewoman," 
and  there  are  quartermistresses  in  charge  of 
stores.  Rank  is  shown  as  among  the  men,  by 
badges,  rose  and  fleur-de-lys. 

Administrators  are  being  trained  in  large 
numbers.  They  have  a  short  course  of  drilling, 
learn  to  fill  up  Army  forms,  make  out  pay  sheets, 
how  to  requisition  for  rations,  catering  generally, 
and  how  to  run  a  hostel.  They  also  attend  prac- 
tical lectures  on  hygiene  and  sanitation.  When 
this  is  done,  they  go  to  camp  for  a  fortnight's 
training  under  an  administrator  in  actual  charge 
of  a  Unit.  If  they  have  not  done  well  in  this 
course,  they  are  not  appointed. 

An  administrator  receives  a  $100  grant  for 
her  uniform  and  is  paid  from  $600  to  $875  a  year 
out  of  which  $200  is  deducted  for  food.  There 
is  generally  one  officer  to  every  fifty  women. 

The  administrator  must  drill  her  girls.  The 
W.  A.  A.  C.  is  proud  of  its  tone  and  its  discipline. 
Its  officers  make  the  girls  feel  much  is  expected 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   221 

of  them,  because  of  the  uniform  they  wear,  and 
the  girls  have  made  a  fine  response.  There  are 
very  few  rules  and  as  little  restraint  as  possible. 
The  girls  are  put  on  their  honour  when  not  under 
supervision.  The  administrator  has  considerable 
disciplinary  powers,  but  they  are  very  little 
needed. 

It  does  not  seem  to  be  by  discipline  that  the 
officer  succeeds  best.  There  is  a  nice  story  told 
of  an  Administrator  who  had  been  away  from  her 
unit  some  days,  returning  and  being  met  at  the 
station  by  one  of  the  rank  and  file  who  had  come 
for  her  bag. 

"I  am  glad  to  see  you,  Ma'am,"  was  the  greet- 
ing, so  emphatic  a  one  that  the  Administrator 
inquired  nervously  if  something  were  wrong. 

"Oh,  no.  Seems  as  if  Mother  had  been  away, 
Ma'am,"  explained  the  girl. 

The  Administrator  can  help  her  girls  by  sort- 
ing them  out  well,  putting  friends  and  the  same 
kind  of  girls  together;  it  makes  so  much 
difference. 

The  Administrator  has  not  only  to  handle  her 


222  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

own  sex — she  has  to  deal  with  men  officers  and 
quartermasters,  and  she  succeeds  in  doing  that 
well,  too. 

Our  Administrators  are  naturally  women  of 
education  and  carefully  chosen  and  there  is 
plenty  of  opportunity  of  rising  "from  the  ranks." 

The  girls  cross  over  to  France  on  the  gray 
transports,  are  received  by  the  women  Draft  Re- 
ceiving Officers,  and  go  up  the  lines  to  their 
assigned  posts. 

The  women  are  billeted  in  some  of  the  base 
towns  in  pensions  and  summer  hotels  that  have 
been  commandeered,  in  big  houses  and  in  one 
case  in  a  beautiful  old  Chateau  where  the  ghosts 
of  dead-and-gone  ladies  of  beauty  and  fashion 
must  wonder  what  kind  of  women  these  khaki 
clad  girls  are.  The  girls  in  these  make  their 
rooms  home-like  with  photographs,  hangings,  and 
little  personal  belongings. 

The  greater  number  of  girls  live  in  camps,  and 
different  types  of  huts  have  been  tried.  Some 
of  the  camps  are  entirely  of  wooden  huts — large 
and  roomy.  Other  camps  have  the  Nissen  hut 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   223 

of  corrugated  iron,  lined  with  laths  wood  floored 
and  raised  from  the  ground.  These  have  been 
linked  together  in  the  cleverest  way  by  covered 
ways.  In  the  sleeping  huts  the  beds  are  iron 
bedsteads  with  springs  and  horse-hair  matresses. 
Each  bed  has  four  thoroughly  good  blankets  and 
a  pillow.  No  sheets  are  given — there  is  no  labour 
to  wash  the  thousands  of  sheets,  and  the  cotton 
is  needed.  Each  woman  has  a  wooden  locker 
with  a  shelf  above,  and  a  chair.  Washing  and 
bathing  is  done  in  separate  huts,  and  in  every 
camp  hot  and  cold  water  is  laid  on. 

The  mess  room  is  a  big  hut.  The  girls  wait 
on  themselves  and  the  food  is  excellent.  They 
receive  in  rations  the  same  as  the  soldiers  on 
lines  of  communication — four-fifths  of  a  fighting 
man's  ration  and  whatever  is  over  is  returned 
and  credited,  and  the  extra  money  is  used  for 
luxuries,  games  and  for  entertaining  visitors 
from  other  camps. 

Here  is  a  typical  week's  meals  and  it  shows 
how  well  they  are  fed: 


224  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

MONDAY. — Breakfast:  Tea,  bread,  butter,  baked 
mince,  jam.  Dinner:  Cold  beef,  potatoes, 
tomatoes,  baked  apples,  custard.  Tea:  Tea, 
bread,  butter,  jam.  Supper:  Welsh  rarebit, 
bread,  butter,  jam. 

TUESDAY. — Breakfast:  Tea,  bread,  butter,  boiled 
ham,  marmalade.  Dinner:  brown  onion  stew, 
potatoes,  baked  beans,  biscuit  pudding.  Tea: 
Tea,  bread,  butter,  jam,  cheese.  Supper: 
Savoury  rice,  tea,  bread. 

WEDNESDAY. — Breakfast :  Tea,  bread,  butter,  veal 
loaf.  Dinner:  Roast  mutton,  potatoes,  mar- 
row, bread  pudding.  Tea :  Tea,  bread,  butter, 
marmalade,  jam.  Supper:  Rissoles,  bread, 
butter,  cheese. 

TUESDAY. — Breakfast:  Tea,  bread,  butter,  fried 
bacon.  Dinner:  Meat  pie,  potatoes,  cabbage, 
custard  and  rice.  Tea:  Tea,  bread,  butter, 
jam.  Supper :  Soup,  bread  and  jam. 

FRIDAY. — Breakfast:  Tea,  bread,  butter,  rissoles, 
marmalade.  Dinner:  Boiled  beef,  potatoes 
and  onions,  Dundee  roll.  Tea:  tea,  bread, 
butter,  jam,  slab  cake.  Supper:  Shepherd's 
pie,  tea,  bread,  butter. 

SATURDAY. — Breakfast :  Tea,  bread,  butter,  boiled 
ham,  jam.  Dinner :  Thick  brown  stew,  pota- 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   225 

toes  and  cabbage,  bread  pudding.  Tea:  Tea, 
bread,  butter,  jam,  cheese.  Supper :  Tead-in- 
hole,  bread  jam. 

SUNDAY. — Breakfast:  Tea,  bread,  butter,  fried 
bacon.  Dinner :  Roast  beef,  potatoes  and  cab- 
bage, stewed  fruit,  custard.  Tea :  Tea,  bread, 
butter,  jam.  Supper:  Soup,  bread,  butter, 
cheese. 

They  are  divided  into  five  big  classes  for  work. 
There  are  large  numbers  of  them  cooks  and 
waitresses,  and  many  of  these  cooks  come  from 
the  best  private  houses  in  England,  so  the  Waacs 
and  the  soldiers  fare  well.  In  one  camp  in  the 
early  days  sixty  women  cooks  walked  in  and 
sixty  men  out,  released  for  the  fighting  lines. 
The  saving  in  fats  done  by  the  women  is  very 
great  and  their  economies  admirable  and  the 
women  are  waitresses  in  the  camps  and  messes. 

In  one  base  in  France  when  twenty-nine  cooks 
came  to  take  charge  in  the  early  days  the  com- 
manding officer  issued  an  order  that  expresses 
very  well  the  spirit  in  which  the  women  are 
regarded. 
15 


226  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

BASE  DEPOT. 

The  Officer  Commanding  Base  Depot  wishes 
to  draw  the  attention  of  all  ranks  to  the  follow- 
ing points  in  connection  with  the  Domestic  Sec- 
tion of  the  Women's  Auxiliary  Army,  which  is 
employed  in  this  depot: 

These  women  have  not  come  out  for  the  sake 
of  money,  as  their  pay  is  that  of  a  private  soldier. 
In  nearly  every  case  they  have  lost  someone  dear 
to  them  in  this  war,  and  they  are  out  here  to 
try  to  do  their  best  to  make  things  more  com- 
fortable for  the  men  in  regard  to  their  food. 

It,  therefore,  is  up  to  all  ranks  to  make  their 
lot  an  easy  and  not  a  hard  one  during  their 
stay  in  France.  If  any  man  should  so  forget 
himself  as  to  use  bad  language  or  at  any  time 
to  be  rude  to  them,  it  is  up  to  any  of  his  com- 
rades standing  by  to  shut  him  up,  and  see  that 
he  does  not  repeat  this  offence. 

To  the  older  men  I  would  say:  Treat  them 
as  you  would  your  own  daughters.  To  the 
younger  men :  Treat  them  as  you  would  your  own 
sisters. 

,  Comdg.,  Base  Depot. 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   227 

They  are  doing  the  clerical  work  more  and 
more,  and  in  a  few  weeks  have  become  so  tech- 
nical that  they  know  where  to  send  requisitions 
concerning  9.2  guns  or  trench  mortars  or  giant 
howitzers.  There  is  a  favourite  story  told 
against  an  early  Waac  that  when  a  demand  came 
for  armoured  hose,  she  sent  it  to  the  clothing 
department,  but  she  knows  better  now. 

French  girls  are  also  helping  in  the  clerical 
department,  working  side  by  side  with  the 
Waacs. 

Others,  the  telegraphists  and  telephonists 
are  in  the  Signalling  Corps  and  these  are  the 
only  ones  who  wear  Army  badges.  They  work 
under  the  Officers  Commanding  Signals  and  are 
so  successful  that  the  officers  want  thousands 
more. 

Another  small  group  are  called  the  "Hush 
Waacs."  There  are  only  about  a  dozen  of  them 
and  they  have  come  from  the  Censor's  Office 
and  between  them  have  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
all  modern  languages.  They  are  decoding  sig- 
nalled and  written  messages,  script  of  every  kind. 


228  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Numbers  more  are  motor  car  and  transport 
drivers  working  with  A.  S.  C. 

An  intensely  interesting  piece  of  work  at  the 
front  in  which  the  Waacs  now  are,  and  in  which 
French  women  have  worked  for  a  very  long  time, 
and  are  still  working  in  large  numbers,  is  the 
great  "Salvage"  work  of  the  Army.  In  the  Sal- 
vage centre  at  one  ordnance  base  30,000  boots  are 
repaired  in  a  week.  They  are  divided  into  three 
classes — those  that  can  be  used  again  by  the  men 
at  the  front — those  for  men  on  the  lines  of  com- 
munication— those  for  prisoners  and  coloured 
labour,  and  uppers  that  are  quite  useless  are  cut 
up  into  laces.  They  salve  old  helmets,  old  web 
and  leather  equipments,  haversacks,  rifles,  horse 
shoes,  spurs,  and  every  conceivable  kind  of  bat- 
tlefield debris. 

The  work  of  repair  and  of  renewal  of  clothing, 
which  goes  over  to  England  to  be  dealt  with,  is 
a  wonder  of  economy. 

The  women  are  helping  in  postal  work  and  we 
handle  about  three  million  letters  and  packets  a 
day  in  France  for  our  Army  there. 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS    229 

One  other  piece  of  work  that  falls  to  trained 
women  gardeners  in  the  Corps,  is  the  care  of  the 
graves  in  France.  There  are  so  many  graves  in 
little  clusters,  lonely  by  the  roadside,  and  in 
great  cemeteries.  They  mark  them  clearly  and 
they  make  them  more  beautiful  with  flowers. 
No  work  they  have  come  to  do,  is  done  more  faith- 
fully than  this  act  of  reverence  to  our  heroic 
and  honoured  dead. 

The  Y.  W.  C.  A.'s  Blue  Triangle  is  going  to 
be  the  same  symbol  for  the  Waacs  as  the  Red 
Triangle  for  the  Soldiers.  They  are  building 
huts  everywhere  in  France  and  in  England,  and 
the  girls  like  them  as  much  as  the  men  do. 

In  these  recreation  huts  the  girls  enjoy  them- 
selves and  there  are  evenings  when  the  soldier 
friends  come  in,  too,  and  have  a  good  time  with 
them,  for  Waacs  and  the  soldiers  know  each 
other  and  meet  at  all  the  Bases  and  Camps. 

They  dance  and  play  games,  and  act,  or  sing, 
or  come  and  talk,  and  one  visitor  tells  us  of  see- 
ing a  girl  doing  machining  at  tlie  end  of  a  hut 


230  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

with  one  soldier  turning  the  handle  for  her  and 
another  helping. 

One  evening  at  a  dance  some  gallant  Aus- 
tralian N.  C.  O/s  arrived  carrying  two  enormous 
pans  of  a  famous  salad,  that  was  their  specialty, 
as  their  contribution  to  the  provisions.  So  life 
in  the  Waacs  is  not  all  work — there  is  play,  too, 
wisely.  Every  camp  has  a  trained  V.  A.  D. 
worker  to  look  after  the  girls  in  case  of  sickness. 
If  the  case  is  bad  they  are  sent  over  to  Endell 
Street  Hospital  in  London. 

The  Navy  is  going  to  follow  the  Army — so  our 
women  will  be  "Soldier  and  Sailor  too,"  and  we 
shall  have  to  sing,  "Till  the  girls  come  home,"  as 
well. 

The  Admiralty  has  decided  to  employ  women 
on  various  duties  on  shore  hitherto  done  by  naval 
ratings,  and  to  establish  a  Women's  Royal  Naval 
Service.  The  women  will  have  a  distinctive  uni- 
form and  the  service  will  be  confined  to  women 
employed  on  definite  duties  directly  connected 
with  the  Royal  Navy.  It  is  not  intended  at  pres- 
ent to  include  those  serving  in  the  Admiralty 


THE  WOMEN'S  ARMY  AUXILIARY  CORPS   231 

departments  or  the  Royal  Dockyards  or  other 
civil  establishments  under  the  Admiralty.  There 
are  thousands  of  women  in  these  already,  as  there 
were  in  Army  pay  offices,  etc.,  before  the  Waacs 
were  formed. 

Dame  Katherine  Furse,  G.B.E.,  will  be  Di- 
rector of  the  Women's  Royal  Naval  Service,  and 
will  be  responsible  under  the  Second  Sea  Lord, 
for  its  administration  and  organization. 

Already  we  hear  they  are  likely  to  be  known 
as  the  "Wrens."  And  so  our  women  are  inside 
the  organized  forces  of  defence  of  our  Country — 
the  last  line  of  usefulness  and  service. 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS 

"Evils  which  have  been  allowed  to  flourish  for 
centuries  cannot  be  destroyed  in  a  day.  If  the 
nation  really  wishes  to  be  freed  from  the  conse- 
quences of  prostitution  it  must  deal  with  the 
sources  of  prostitution  by  a  long  series  of  social, 
educational,  and  economic  reforms.  The  ulti- 
mate remedy  is  the  acceptance  of  a  single  stand- 
ard of  morality  for  men  and  women,  and  the 
recognition  that  man  is  meant  to  be  the  master 
and  not  the  slave  of  his  body.  There  are  thou- 
sands of  men  both  in  the  army  and  out  of  it  who 
know  this,  and  for  whom  the  streets  of  London 
have  no  dangers." 

— Dr.  HELEN  WILSON. 


CHAPTER  XII 

THE  WAR  AND  MORALS 

THE  unprecedented  state  of  things  pro- 
duced by  the  war  brought  in  its  train 
serious  anxiety  as  to  moral  conditions,  not 
only  in  regard  to  the  relation  between  the  sexes 
but  in  other  ways.  The  gathering  of  every  kind 
of  man  together,  in  camps  creates  great  problems. 
Young  boys,  who  had  never  been  away  from  home 
before,  who  know  very  little  of  the  world  or  of 
temptations,  were  often  flung  in  with  very  un- 
desirable companions.  There  were  many  risks 
and  many  hard  tests  and  the  parents  who  see 
their  young  boys  go  to  camp  without  preparing 
them,  or  warning  them,  do  their  boys  a  great  dis- 
service and  I  have  known  of  sons  who  bore  in 
their  hearts  a  feeling  of  having  been  badly  treated 
by  their  parents,  that  would  never  die,  for  being 
sent  without  a  word  of  counsel  into  these  things. 
It  is  not  only  actions — corrupt  thoughts  are 
the  most  evil  of  all — and  to  help  to  give  our  boys 


230  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

the  greatest  possession,  moral  courage,  founded 
on  knowledge,  is  our  finest  gift. 

There  were  temptations  to  think  less  cleanly, 
to  hear  things  said  without  protest  and  to  say 
them  later.  There  were  drinking  temptations 
and  one  used  to  wonder  with  a  sick  heart,  what 
mothers  would  feel  if  they  could  see  these  young 
boys  of  theirs  sometimes,  so  pathetically  young 
and  so  foolish.  There  was  also  in  these  great 
camps  of  men — let  us  realize  that  quite  clearly — 
great  good  for  the  boys  and  the  men — good  that 
far  outweighs  the  evil.  All  the  good  of  discipline, 
all  they  gained  by  their  coming  together  for  a 
great  cause,  all  they  gained  in  that  great  com- 
radeship and  service  for  each  other,  and  in  their 
self-sacrifice  for  their  country  and  the  world.  The 
wonder  and  beauty  of  what  it  is,  and  means 
some  of  our  own  men  have  told  us — among  them 
one  who  died,  Donald  Hankey,  and  has  left  us  a 
rich  treasure  in  his  works.  And  we  all  know 
it  in  our  own  men — that  abiding  spirit  that  is 
the  vision  without  which  the  people  perish. 

But  there  are  and  were  evils  to  fight  and  men 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  237 

and  women  to  help.  The  huts  and  canteens  and 
guesthouses  are  great  agencies  for  good — as  well 
as  for  comfort.  Loneliness,  and  nowhere  to  go, 
and  no  one  to  talk  to,  are  conditions  that  make 
for  mischief. 

Then  there  were  the  girls  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  war,  excited  by  all  that  was  happening,  not 
yet  busy  as  they  nearly  all  are  now,  feeling  that 
the  greatest  thing  was  to  know  the  soldiers  and 
talk  and  walk  with  them,  and  flocking  around 
camps  and  barracks,  being  foolish  and  risking 
worse. 

The  National  Union  of  Women  Workers  de- 
cided to  take  action  about  this  and  drew  up  a 
scheme  which  they  submitted  to  the  Chief  Com- 
missioner of  the  Metropolitan  Police,  Sir  Edward 
Henry,  K.C.V.O.  This  scheme  was  for  women  of 
experience  and  knowledge  of  girls  to  patrol  in 
the  camps  and  barrack  areas,  and  talk  to  girls 
who  were  behaving  foolishly,  and  try  to  influence 
them  for  good.  It  was  felt  and  it  turned  out  to 
be  quite  accurate  that  the  mere  presence  of  these 
women  would  make  girls  and  men  behave  better. 


238  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Sir  Edward  Henry  approved  of  the  idea  and  ar- 
ranged that  each  Patrol  should  have  a  card 
signed  by  him  to  be  carried  while  on  duty,  au- 
thorizing the  Patrols  to  seek  and  get  the  assist- 
ance of  the  Police,  if  necessary,  and  the  Patrols 
wore  an  armlet  with  badge  and  number. 

Their  work  in  London  proved  so  successful 
that  the  Home  Office  recommended  the  adoption 
of  the  scheme  in  provincial  centres,  where  the 
Chief  Constables  authorized  them  and  later  the 
War  Office  asked  for  more  Patrols  in  some  of  the 
camp  areas  and  spoke  very  highly  of  their  work. 

A  woman  Patrol  is  generally  a  woman  who  is 
busy  in  her  own  home  or  profession  all  day,  but 
who  gives  some  hours  one  or  two  evenings  a 
week  to  this  work. 

They  have  done  the  work  faithfully  and  well, 
and  have  exceeded  in  their  success  all  anticipa- 
tions. There  are  about  3,000  Patrols  in  the 
Kingdom;  of  these  eighty-five  are  engaged  in 
special  work  in  London  and  paid  by  the  Com- 
missioner of  Police.  Two  are  engaged  in  work 
at  Woolwich  Arsenal.  Two  are  Park  Keepers 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  239 

appointed  by  the  Board  of  Works  and  are  work- 
ing in  Kensington  Gardens,  and  their  names 
were  submitted  to  the  King  before  appointment. 
They  have  the  power  of  arrest. 

A  subsidy  has  been  granted  to  the  Women's 
Patrol  Committee  for  the  training  of  Women 
Patrols  of  £400  a  year.  In  many  big  towns  ad- 
mirable work  has  been  done. 

In  Edinburgh  the  Patrol  Committee  was  asked 
by  H.  M.  Office  of  Works  to  help  the  men  park 
keepers  in  keeping  order  in  the  King's  Park. 

This  they  have  done  with  great  success.  Dub- 
lin has  just  taken  over  two  women  Patrols  as 
paid  workers. 

The  Military,  Admiralty,  Police,  and  Civil 
Authorities  have  all  united  in  praising  their 
work  and  any  one  can  realize  how  much  patience 
and  tact  and  knowledge  it  calls  for,  and  what 
it  means  to  have  had  it  done  for  over  three  years. 
The  patrols  have  not  been  content  only  to  talk 
to  the  girls,  though  it  is  wonderful  what  that 
alone  can  do.  They  have  succeeded  in  getting 
them  to  come  to  clubs  and  they  have  worked  in 


240  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

connection  with  the  mixed  clubs  of  which  we 
have  several  very  successful  ones.  A  mixed  club 
is  very  useful  and  helpful,  but  it  must  be  well 
run  by  a  good  committee  of  men  and  women, 
and  you  need  people  of  judgment  and  knowledge 
and  tactful  firmness  in  charge  of  it,  if  it  is  to 
be  the  best  kind  of  club. 

We  have  found  an  admirable  thing  is  to  have 
evenings  for  men  friends  in  the  Girls'  Clubs  when 
the  girls  can  invite  their  men  friends  in,  and 
have  music  and  games  and  entertainment. 

When  Patrols  were  started,  there  was  a  very 
strong  feeling  that  there  ought  to  be  women  po- 
lice, a  much  needed  change  in  our  country. 
We  had  none  when  war  broke  out,  but  in  Sep- 
tember, 1914,  Miss  Darner  Dawson  founded  the 
Women  Police  Service.  When  members  joined 
they  were  trained  in  drill,  first  aid,  practical 
instructions  in  Police  Duties,  gained  by  actual 
work  in  streets,  parks,  etc.  They  studied  special 
acts  relating  to  women  and  children  and  civil 
and  criminal  law  and  the  procedure  and  rules 
of  evidence  in  Police  Courts. 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  241 

Their  first  work  was  done  in  Grantham  where, 
in  November,  1914,  the  Women's  Central  Com- 
mittee of  Grantham  elected  a  Women  Police  Sub- 
committee to  provide  a  fund  for  the  payment  of 
two  Police  Women  to  work  with  the  Chief  Con- 
stable. In  February  the  following  letter  was 
written  about  their  work : 

"To  the  Chief  Officer,  Women  Police, — I  un- 
derstand that  there  is  some  idea  of  removing  the 
two  members  of  the  Women  Police  now  stationed 
here.  I  trust  that  this  is  not  the  case.  The  ser- 
vices of  the  two  ladies  in  question  have  proved 
of  great  value.  They  have  removed  sources  of 
trouble  to  the  troops  in  a  manner  that  the  Mili- 
tary Police  could  not  attempt.  Moreover,  I  have 
no  doubt  whatever  that  the  work  of  these  two 
ladies  in  an  official  capacity  is  a  great  safeguard 
to  the  moral  welfare  of  young  girls  in  the  town. 
(Signed)  F.  HAMMERSLEY,  M.G., 
Commanding  llth  Division, 

Grantham." 

16 


242  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

and  in  November,  1915,  they  were  made  official 
Police  by  the  City  Council.  In  July,  1916,  the 
Police  Miscellaneous  Provisions  Act  was  passed, 
which  encouraged  the  employment  of  Police- 
women by  stating  that  pay  of  the  police  "shall  be 
deemed  to  include  the  pay  of  any  women  who 
may  be  employed  by  a  Police  Authority,"  etc. 

Now  there  are  thirty-four  Policewomen  in  our 
Boroughs,  but  their  position  is  still  anomalous 
and  unsatisfactory,  as  they  do  not  come  under 
the  Police  Act  for  purposes  of  discipline,  pay, 
pensions,  and  compensation,  but  this  will  come. 
Meantime  the  Women  Police  Service  goes  on 
doing  its  admirable  work  of  training  and  pro- 
viding Volunteer  and  Semi-official  police  (sup- 
ported by  women's  funds),  in  addition  to  those 
appointed  by  local  authorities  in  Boroughs. 

These  semi-official  police  women  are  able  to 
do  a  great  deal,  if  the  Chief  Constable  is  friendly, 
and,  naturally,  they  are  appointed  where  he  is  so. 
They  are  often  made  Probation  Officers  and  are 
used  for  children's  and  girl's  and  women's  cases. 
Their  work  leads  more  and  more  to  the  official 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  243 

appointments  and  in  this  work  as  in  so  many  of 
our  successes,  we  women  have  achieved  the  re- 
sults by  having  the  voluntary  organizations  and 
training  ourselves  first  and  proving  our  fitness. 

From  my  own  experience,  it  is  impossible  to 
speak  too  highly  of  the  kindness  and  willingness 
of  many  Chief  Constables  to  do  everything  to 
teach  and  help  the  women. 

The  Women  Police  Service  naturally  insists  on 
a  high  standard  of  training  and  this  has  been  of 
great  value. 

A  big  development  of  women  police  work  has 
been  in  the  Munition  factories  where  now  about 
700  women  are  employed  in  this  capacity  in 
England,  Scotland  and  Wales. 

The  report  of  the  Women's  Police  Service  gives 
the  following  interesting  account. 

"In  1916  the  Department  Explosives  Supply 
of  the  Ministry  of  Munitions  applied  to  Sir 
Edward  Henry  for  a  force  of  Women  Police  to 
act  as  guards  for  certain  of  H.  M.  Factories.  Sir 
Edward  Henry  sent  for  the  two  chief  officers  of 
the  Women  Police  Service,  and  informed  them 


244  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

that  it  was  his  intention  to  recommend  them  to 
the  Ministry  of  Munitions  for  the  supplying  of 
the  Women  Police  required.  They  thanked  the 
Commissioner  for  his  expression  of  trust  in  their 
capabilities,  and  in  July  an  agreement  was 
drawn  up  between  the  Minister  of  Munitions  and 
the  Chief  Officer  and  Chief  Superintendent  of  the 
Women  Police  Service,  who  were  appointed  to 
act  as  the  Minister's  representatives  for  the 
'training,  supplying  and  controlling'  of  the  Force 
required.  The  duties  of  the  Policewomen  were 
to  include  checking  the  entry  of  women  into  the 
factory,  examining  passports,  searching  for  con- 
traband, namely,  matches,  cigarettes  and  alco- 
hol; dealing  with  complaints  of  petty  offences; 
patrolling  the  neighbourhood  for  the  protection 
of  women  going  home  from  work ;  accompanying 
the  women  to  and  fro  in  the  workmen's  trains  to 
the  neighbouring  towns  where  they  lodge;  ap- 
pearing in  necessary  cases  at  the  Police  Court, 
and  assisting  the  magistrates  in  dealing  with 
such  cases,  if  required  to.  The  Force  for  each 
factory  was  to  consist  of  an  inspector,  sergeants 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  245 

and  constables.  Women  to  be  trained  for  this 
work  were  at  once  enrolled  by  the  Women  Police 
Service  and  trained  under  a  Staff  of  Officers. 

"Since  the  inauguration  of  factory-police  work 
for  women  in  July,  1916,  a  marked  success  has 
attended  the  organisation,  which  has  resulted  in 
almost  daily  applications  for  Policewomen  for 
factories  situated  in  every  part  of  the  United 
Kingdom.  We  are  not  able  to  give  a  list  of  these 
factories  nor  to  mention  their  names  in  our  re- 
port of  the  work  carried  on  by  them,  but  we  may 
say  that  at  the  present  time  we  are  supplying 
H.  M.  Factories,  National  Filling  Factories  and 
Private  Controlled  Factories.  We  are  sure  that 
our  patrons  and  subscribers  will  feel  as  proud 
as  we  are  of  the  intrepid  Policewomen  who  for 
the  past  fourteen  months  have  been  carrying  out 
these  duties,  which,  we  believe,  no  women  have 
hitherto  dreamt  of  undertaking,  and  which  have 
called  forth  qualities  of  tact,  discretion,  cool 
courage  and  endurance  that  would  compare  well 
with  any  of  those  whom  we  call  heroes  in  the 
fight  at  the  front.  We  would  call  attention  to 


246  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

one  factory  from  which  both  the  military  and 
male  Police  Guard  has  been  withdrawn.  The  fac- 
tory employs  several  thousand  women  in  the 
manufacture  and  disposal  of  some  of  the  most 
dangerous  explosives  demanded  by  the  war. 
When  an  air  raid  is  in  progress  the  operatives 
are  cleared  from  the  factory  and  the  sheds  and 
magazines  are  left  to  the  sole  charge  of  the  Fire- 
men and  Policewomen,  who  take  up  the  respec- 
tive posts  allotted  to  them.  The  Policewomen 
who  guard  the  various  magazines  know  that  they 
hold  their  lives  in  their  hands.  We  are  proud  to 
report  that  not  one  woman  has  failed  at  her  post 
or  shirked  her  duty  in  the  hour  of  danger.  The 
duties  assigned  to  the  Policewomen  and  their 
officers  in  these  factories  have  increased  consid- 
erably in  scope  during  the  past  year.  In  one  fac- 
tory the  force  of  Policewomen  numbers  160 
under  one  Chief  Inspector,  two  Inspectors  and 
twelve  Sergeants,  all  of  whom  have  been  sworn 
in  and  take  entire  charge  of  all  police  cases  deal- 
ing with  women.  They  arrest,  convey  the  pris- 
oners to  the  Women  Police  Charge  Station,  keep 


POLICE  WOMEN 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  247 

their  own  charge  sheets  and  other  official  docu- 
ments, lock  the  prisoner  in  the  cells,  keep  guard 
over  her,  convey  her  to  the  Court  House  for  trial, 
and  if  convicted  convey  her  to  the  prison.  A 
short  time  ago  the  Inspector  of  Policewomen  in 
one  of  H.  M.  Factories  was  instructed  by  the 
authorities  to  send  a  Policewoman  to  a  distant 
town  to  fetch  a  woman  prisoner,  an  old  offender. 
The  Policewoman  was  armed  with  a  warrant, 
railway  vouchers  and  handcuffs.  The  prisoner 
was  handed  over  to  the  Policewoman  by  the  Po- 
liceman, and  the  Policewoman  and  her  charge 
returned  without  trouble.  The  prisoner  ex- 
pressed her  relief  and  gratitude  at  being  escorted 
by  a  Policewoman,  and  behaved  well  throughout 
the  journey.  The  Policewoman  reported  that  she 
was  given  every  courtesy  and  assistance  by  both 
police  and  railway  officials. 

"We  believe  this  constitutes  the  first  time  in 
history  that  women  guards  have  been  entrusted 
with  the  care  and  custody  of  their  fellow-women 
when  charged  with  breaking  the  law." 


248  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

Other  pieces  of  important  and  difficult  work 
have  been  undertaken  by  women. 

There  have  been,  unfortunately,  cases  in  which 
the  soldier's  wife,  left  at  home,  has  behaved 
badly  and  been  unfaithful.  Men  often  write 
from  the  trenches  to  the  Chief  Constable  to  ask  if 
charges  made  to  them  in  letters  about  their  wives 
are  true.  Naturally  the  Chief  Constable  asks 
the  women  to  investigate  these  charges.  Some- 
times the  charges  are  quite  unfounded,  simply 
spiteful  and  malicious  and  the  woman  and  Chief 
Constable  write  and  say  so. 

In  other  cases  the  husband  knows  of  unfaith- 
fulness and  writes  to  the  Army  Pay  Office  asking 
to  have  the  allowance  stopped  to  his  wife.  The 
Army  Pay  Office  never  acts  on  any  such  letter 
without  securing  a  report  from  the  Chief  Con- 
stable, and  again  the  woman  is  needed,  and  there 
is  frequently  the  question  of  the  children  as  well. 
Their  allowance,  of  course,  never  ceases  but  they 
may  go  to  some  relative  or  be  disposed  of  in  some 
way. 
These  cases  are  infinitesimal  in  number. 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  249 

After  the  outbreak  of  the  war  there  were  many 
scares.  Every  one  in  our  country  knows  now 
how  a  myth  is  established.  We  have  left  the 
stage  behind  where  people  told  you  they  knew, 
from  a  friend,  who  knew  a  friend  who  knew  some 
one  else  who  saw  it,  who  was  in  the  War  Office, 
etc.,  etc.,  etc. — that  England  was  invaded — that 
the  Navy  was  all  down — or  the  German  Navy 
was  all  down — that  we  were  going  to  do  this,  that, 
or  the  other  impossible  thing. 

Dame  Rumour  had  a  joyous  time  in  the  early 
days  of  the  war  and  we  suffered  from  the  people 
who  were  not  only  quite  certain  that  everything 
was  wrong  morally,  but  told  us  that  the  illegiti- 
mate birth  rate  was  going  to  be  enormous.  Their 
accusations  against  our  ordinary  girls  were 
monstrous.  There  was  some  excitement  and 
foolishness,  but  anybody  who  was  really  working 
and  dealing  with  it  as  the  Patrols  were,  knew  the 
accusations  were  ridiculous.  The  illegitimate 
birth  rate  of  our  country  is  lower  than  before, 
which  is  the  best  reply  to,  and  the  vindication 


250  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

of  the  men  of  our  armies  and  our  girls  against, 
these  absurd  attacks. 

Another  scare  was  about  the  drinking  of 
women.  Soldiers'  wives  were  attacked  in  this 
connection  and  the  same  kind  of  wild  accusation 
made,  so  much  so  that  a  committee  was  ap- 
pointed to  go  into  the  whole  question  (1915), 
presided  over  by  Mrs.  Creighton,  President  of 
the  National  Union  of  Women  Workers. 

In  my  experience  a  great  deal  of  this  talk  was 
caused  by  the  fact  that  many  women,  who  had 
never  done  social  work,  and  who  knew  nothing 
of  real  conditions,  started  to  go  among  the  people 
and  were  shocked  and  overwhelmed  by  what  were 
unfortunately  normal  wrong  conditions,  and  lost 
all  sense  of  perspective.  Some  women  did  drink- 
true — but  I  found  they  were  generally  the  women 
who  always  had  done  it,  and  who  perhaps  in 
some  cases,  having  more  money  of  their  own  and 
no  husbands  to  deal  with,  drank  a  little  more. 

The  findings  of  the  Committee  showed  this 
clearly  and  they  made  some  recommendations, 
especially  recommending  that  the  Central  Board 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  251 

for  the  Control  of  the  Liquor  Traffic  proceeded 
to  do  on  its  creation,  restriction  of  hours  of  sale. 
Our  restrictions  make  the  sale  of  liquor  legal 
only  from  12  noon  to  2.30  and  from  6.30  to  8.30 
or  9  P.  M.  Our  convictions  for  drunkenness  for 
women  have  fallen  very  low  and  for  men,  too. 
There  is  very  much  less  drinking  in  our  country 
and  things  are  very  much  improved. 

These  attacks  on  soldiers'  wives  were  naturally 
much  resented  as  their  work  in  the  homes  and 
industries,  with  their  men  away,  and  all  their 
difficulties,  has  not  always  been  easy.  We  find 
there  is  a  little  more  difficulty  with  the  boys. 
They  miss  the  fathers'  discipline  and  there  has 
been  some  trouble  through  that,  but  such  magni- 
ficent agencies  as  the  Boy  Scouts,  who  have 
helped  us  everywhere  in  the  war,  do  great  good. 

The  problem  of  dealing  with  the  prevention  of 
immorality  has  been  a  big  one.  The  Women  Pa- 
trols and  the  Women  Police  have  been  used  in 
London  in  Waterloo  Road  (which  had  a  bad 
reputation)  and  in  parks,  etc.  The  G.  R.  Volun- 
teer Corps  of  men  who  meet  the  soldier  arriving 


252  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

in  London  at  the  stations  do  a  very  good  work. 

In  the  Army  and  Navy  excellent  leaflets  and 
booklets  were  issued  dealing  with  the  question 
in  a  very  straightforward  and  admirable  way. 

The  Council  for  Moral  and  Social  Hygiene  and 
the  National  Council  for  Combating  Venereal 
Diseases  has  been  doing  a  great  work.  The  lat- 
ter, which  is  a  body  set  up  as  a  result  of  the 
Government  Commission  on  Venereal  Diseases, 
had  done  a  great  deal  of  educational  work  and 
has  set  up  an  organization  over  the  country. 
The  Commission  recommended  much  fuller  facil- 
ities for  free  treatment  for  those  suffering  from 
these  diseases  in  every  town  and  district. 

A  Criminal  Law  Amendment  Bill  has  been 
brought  in  and  it  improves  our  existing  law  iH 
many  ways  and  strengthens  it.  There  has  been 
much  controversy  about  certain  of  its  provisions, 
some  dealing  with  power  to  send  young  girls  to 
homes.  There  is  a  very  strong  feeling  among 
many  of  our  social  workers  that  Rescue  Work  in 
our  country  altogether  needs  overhauling  and 
change,  and  new  experiments  are  being  tried. 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  253 

Wars  have  almost  invariably  in  the  past  meant 
an  enormous  increase  in  venereal  diseases  on 
the  return  of  the  army  in  the  civil  population. 
Armies  lose  large  numbers  of  men  by  them,  and 
every  person  must  feel  it  is  their  plain  duty  to 
leave  no  means  untried  and  no  measures  unused 
that  could  help. 

The  woman  who  lives  by  her  immoral  earnings 
is,  like  the  man  who  is  immoral  and  uncontrolled, 
a  serious  danger  and  menace  to  her  country  and 
to  generations  yet  unborn. 

The  problems  that  arise  from  the  existence  of 
these  two  groups  are  the  business  of  all  men  and 
women.  The  problems  are  those  of  providing 
decent  and  wholesome  recreation  and  surround- 
ings, of  helping  men  and  women  to  meet  under 
right  conditions,  of  giving  the  right  kind  of  in- 
formation and  guidance  to  the  soldier  and  the 
girl,  of  realizing  what  drink  does  in  this  traffic, 
and  the  fundamental  task  of  working  to  create 
better  social,  economic  and  moral  conditions. 

There  is  no  need  nor  is  it  desirable  to  have 
masses  of  people  suffer  unnecessary  misery  by  a 


254  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

knowledge  of  the  exact  nature  of  this  disease— 
which  leads  sometimes  to  morbidity  and  often 
to  a  frenzied  desire  to  do  something  at  once, 
before  they  really  know  anything  about  the  ques- 
tion and  what  has  been  done. 

There  are  three  questions  that  ought  to  bo 
answered  in  the  affirmative  before  any  legislation 
or  preventive  treatment  is  decided  on. 

Will  the  proposed  action  apply  equally  to  men 
and  to  women,  to  rich  and  to  poor. 

Will  it  tend  to  increase  and  not  undermine  the 
powers  of  self-control? 

Will  it  improve  morals  in  the  nation  and  ele- 
vate them? 

Kepressive  measures  by  themselves  achieve 
nothing.  Preventive  measures  of  every  prac- 
tical and  sound  kind  we  want,  but  most  of  all  we 
need  to  inculcate  the  truth  that 

"Self-reverence,   self-knowledge,   self-control, 
These  three  alone  lead  man  to  sovereign  power." 
It  is  not  enough  to  prevent  and  teach.     We 


THE  WAR  AND  MORALS  255 

should  be  willing  to  help  up,  to  save,  to  love,  and 
we  should  never  be  self-righteous  in  our  help. 

Who  among  us  has  the  right  to  cast  the  first 
stone? 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR 
WOMEN 

"Give  her  of  the  fruits  of  her  hands  and  let  her 
own  works  praise  her  in  the  gates." 

— PROV.,  Chap  31. 


17 


CHAPTER   XIII 

WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR 
WOMEN 

THE  war  has  done  already,  with  us,  such 
great  things  for  women,  so  many  of  them 
so  naturally  accepted  now,  that  it  is  almost 
difficult  to  get  back  in  thought,  and  realize  where 
we  stood  when  it  broke  out. 

General  Smuts,  in  one  of  his  speeches,  said, 
"Under  stress  of  great  difficulty  practically  every- 
thing breaks  down  ultimately,  and  the  only 
things  that  survive  are  really  the  simple  human 
feelings  of  loyalty  and  comradeship  to  your  fel- 
lows, and  patriotism,  which  can  stand  any  strain 
and  bear  you  through  all  difficulty  and  privation. 
We  soldiers  know  the  extraordinary  value  of 
these  simple  feelings,  how  far  they  go  and  what 
strain  they  can  bear,  and  how,  ultimately,  they 
support  the  whole  weight  of  civilization." 

In  this  war  our  men,  in  their  dealings  with  us, 
have  got  down  more  and  more  to  simple  funda- 


260  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

mental  truths  and  facts — loyalty  and  comrade- 
ship, founded  on  our  common  patriotism.  We 
have  got  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  ideal  so  many 
of  us  long  for,  equal  right  to  serve  and  help.  The 
great  fundamental  establishment  of  political 
rights  for  women  has  come  with  us.  When  war 
broke  out,  women's  suffrage  was  winning  all  the 
time  a  greater  and  greater  mass  of  adherents,  a 
majority  of  the  House  was  pledged  to  vote  for 
it  and  had  been  for  years,  the  Trade  Unions  and 
Labour  Party  stood  solid  for  it,  but  the  motive 
to  act  seemed  lacking. 

War  came,  and  every  political  party  in  our 
country  laid  aside  political  agitation.  No  party 
meetings  have  been  held  since  August,  1914. 
Suffragists  and  anti-suffragists  did  the  same. 
The  great  body  of  constitutional  suffragists  kept 
their  organization  intact  but  used  it  for  "sus- 
taining the  vital  energies  of  the  nation."  Relief 
Work,  Hospital  Work  and  Supplies,  Child  Wel- 
fare, Comforts,  Workrooms,  help  for  professional 
women,  work  for  Belgian  refugees,  work  in  can- 
teens and  huts,  work  for  the  Soldiers  and  Sailors 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOB  WOMEN  261 

Families'  Association,  Schools  for  Mothers, 
Girls'  Clubs — into  everything  the  Suffrage  so- 
cieties fling  themselves  with  ardour,  zeal  and 
ability.  No  women  knew  better  how  to  organize, 
no  women  better  how  to  educate  and  win  help. 
They  formed  an  admirable  Women's  Interests 
Committee,  and  looked  after  all  women's  inter- 
ests excellently. 

When  the  Government  issued  its  first  appeal 
for  women  volunteers  for  munitions  and  land, 
etc.,  it  asked  the  Suffrage  societies  to  circulate 
them  and  to  help  them  to  secure  the  needed 
labour  from  women. 

As  the  war  went  on  it  became  clearer  and 
clearer  that  the  men  of  the  country  saw  more  and 
more  vividly  why  suffragists  had  asked  for  votes 
— and  more  and  more  were  impressed  with  the 
value  of  their  work.  At  meetings  to  do  propa- 
ganda for  Government  appeals,  when  women 
spoke  on  the  needs  of  the  country,  men  every- 
where, although  it  had  nothing  to  do  with  the 
appeal,  and  had  never  been  mentioned,  declared 


262  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

their  conversion   to  Women's   Suffrage   in   the 
War. 

Women  pointed  out  that  they  did  not  want 
Women's  Suffrage  as  a  reward — but  as  a  simple 
right.  They  had  not  worked  for  a  reward,  but 
for  their  country,  as  any  citizen  would,  but,  in 
our  country,  the  great  converting  power  is  prac- 
tical proof  of  value  and  they  had  that  overwhelm- 
ingly in  our  work.  The  Press  came  out  practic- 
ally solidly  for  Women's  Suffrage.  The  work  of 
women  was  praised  in  every  paper  and  one  de- 
clared, "It  cannot  be  tolerable  that  we  should 
return  to  the  old  struggle  about  admitting  them 
to  the  franchise."  Eminent  Anti-Suffragists,  in- 
side and  outside  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
frankly  admitted  their  conversion.  Mr.  Asquith, 
the  old  enemy  of  Women's  Suffrage,  said  in  a 
memorable  speech:  "They  presented  to  me  not 
only  a  reasonable,  but,  I  think,  from  their  point 
of  view,  an  unanswerable  case  .  .  .  They  say 
that  when  the  war  comes  to  an  end,  and  when 
the  process  of  industrial  reconstruction  has  to 
be  set  on  foot,  have  not  the  women  a  special 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  263 

claim  to  be  heard  on  the  many  questions  which 
will  arise  directly  affecting  their  interests,  and 
possibly  meaning  for  them  large  displacement  of 
labour?  I  cannot  think  that  the  House  will  deny 
that,  and,  I  say  quite  frankly,  that  I  cannot  deny 
that  claim."  It  was  clear  the  whole  question  of 
franchise  would  need  to  be  gone  into — the  sol- 
diers' vote  was  lost  to  him  under  our  system 
when  he  was  away,  and  the  sailors',  redistribu- 
tion was  long  overdue,  an  election,  as  things 
were,  would  be  absolutely  unrepresentative.  So 
after  several  attempts  to  deal  with  the  problem 
in  sections,  a  Committee  was  set  up  under  the 
Speaker  of  the  House  of  Commons  to  go  into  the 
whole  question  of  Franchise  reform  and  regis- 
tration. 

The  Committee  was  composed  of  five  Peers  and 
twenty-seven  members  of  the  House  of  Commons, 
and  started  its  work  in  October,  1916,  and  in  its 
report,  April,  1917,  it  recommended,  by  a  ma- 
jority, that  a  measure  of  enfranchisement  should 
be  given  to  women. 


264  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  National  Union  of  Women's  Suffrage  So- 
cieties and  the  Consultative  Committee,  which 
had  been  formed  in  1916  by  the  N.  U.  W.  S.  S., 
of  representatives  of  all  constitutional  societies, 
presented  various  memorials,  notably  an  admir- 
able memorandum  of  women's  work  and  opinion 
in  favour,  prepared  by  the  National  Union  for 
the  Speakers'  Conference  during  its  sittings. 
After  its  recommendations  while  the  bill  was 
being  drafted,  Mrs.  Henry  Fawcett,  LL.D.,  the 
President  of  the  N.  U.  W.  S.  S.,  headed  a  depu- 
tation received  by  the  Premier,  Mr.  Lloyd  George, 
who  has  always  been  a  supporter  of  Women's 
Suffrage.  This  was  certainly  one  of  the  most 
representative  and  interesting  deputations  that 
ever  went  to  Downing  Street.  It  numbered  over 
fifty  and  every  woman  in  it  represented  a  great 
section  of  industrial  and  war  workers — Miss 
Mary  MacArthur,  the  Trade  Union  Leader  was 
there,  and  Miss  Margaret  Bondfield,  Mrs.  Flora 
Annie  Steele,  the  authoress;  Lady  Forbes  Rob- 
ertson, for  actresses;  Miss  Adelaide  Anderson, 
our  Chief  Women  Factory  Inspector ;  Mrs.  Oliver 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  265 

Strachey,  Parliamentary  Honourary  Secretary 
of  the  National  Union,  whose  work  has  been  tire- 
less and  invaluable  in  the  House ;  a  woman  muni- 
tion worker,  a  woman  conductor,  a  railway 
woman  worker,  a  woman  chemist,  a  woman  from 
a  bank,  a  clerk,  a  shipyard  worker,  a  nurse, 
a  V.  A.  D.,  an  eminent  woman  doctor,  a  peeress 
in  Lady  Cowdray,  who  has  done  so  much  for  the 
British  Women's  Hospitals  and  so  many  other 
war  objects,  and  women  representatives  of  every 
calling  in  the  nation  at  peace  and  war.  Mrs. 
Pankhurst,  who  has  been  very  active  in  war 
work,  was  also  present  on  the  Premier's  invita- 
tion, and  Mrs.  Fawcett  brought  a  Welshwoman 
who  made  her  plea  in  her  own  language,  the 
Premier's  own,  too,  and  the  one  he  loves  to  hear. 
In  his  reply,  he  assured  them  the  bill  would  con- 
tain a  measure  of  enfranchisement  for  women 
as  drafted,  and  he  was  quite  sure  the  House 
would  carry  it. 

The  recommendations  of  the  Speakers'  Confer- 
ence were  an  agreed  compromise,  and  the  Repre- 
sentation of  the  People  Bill,  as  it  was  called  on 


266  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

its  introduction,  has  gone  through  very  much  on 
the  lines  of  the  recommendations.  It  arranges 
for  postal  or  proxy  votes  for  the  soldier,  the 
sailor  and  the  merchant  seaman,  it  simplifies  the 
qualifications  for  men,  it  retains  the  University 
vote  for  men  and  extends  it  to  women,  and  it  en- 
franchises women  of  thirty  years  of  age  on  a 
residence  qualification,  and  all  wives  of  voters 
of  the  same  age.  It  disfranchises,  for  the  time, 
the  conscientious  objector  who  will  do  no  na- 
tional service.  The  age  at  which  our  men  vote 
is  twenty-one.  The  higher  age  of  the  women  was 
a  compromise,  which  was  accepted  by  all  women's 
societies  and  by  labour  women,  though  it  was  not 
the  terms  they  stood  for — equality. 

If  we  had  it  on  the  same  terms  as  men,  we 
should  very  greatly  outnumber  the  men.  There 
were  over  a  million  more  women  than  men  before 
the  war  and  a  new  electorate  greater  than  all  the 
men's  numbers  brought  in  at  once  was  not  con- 
sidered wise.  To  press  for  it  would  have  wrecked 
our  chances. 

This  measure  enfranchises  six  million  women, 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  267 

and  about  ten  million  men  are  now  voters,  so  we 
have  a  very  fair  proportion. 

The  women's  clause  was  carried,  with  only 
thirty-five  dissentients  and  later  only  seventeen 
voted  against  it. 

In  this  same  bill,  with  practically  no  discus- 
sion, an  amendment  was  carried  enfranchising 
the  wives  of  local  government  electors. 

It  is  difficult  to  adequately  express  the  confi- 
dence, the  desire,  and  the  willingness  to  co- 
operate, that  there  is  now  between  our  men  and 
women. 

We  know,  too,  that  the  great  woman's  move- 
ment of  our  country,  which  has  worked  to  this 
end  for  fifty  years  and  numbered  our  greatest 
women  among  its  adherents,  has  had  much  to  do 
with  the  ability  of  our  women  to  take  the  great 
part  they  have  in  this  crisis.  If  women  had  not 
toiled  and  opened  education  and  opportunities 
to  women,  and  preached  the  necessity  of  full 
service,  we  could  not  have  done  it. 

One  great  thing  the  war  has  done  for  our 
women  is  to  draw  us  all  closely  together — in 


268  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

common  sorrows,  hopes  and  fears,  we  find  how 
much  we  are  one  and  in  ao  much  of  our  work 
women  of  every  rank  of  life  are  together.  We 
had  that  union  before  in  many  ways,  but  never 
so  completely  as  now.  Punch  has  a  delightful 
picture  that  summed  up  how  we  are  mixed  in 
soldier's  canteens,  and  huts  and  buffets,  and  Hos- 
pitals, which  show  a  little  Londoner  saying  to  a 
meek  member  of  the  aristocracy  "washing  up," 
"Nar,  then,  Lady  Halexandra,  'urry  up  with  them 
plaites,"  and  we  have  an  amusing  little  play  of 
the  same  kind.  The  society  girl  who  washes 
down  the  hospital  steps,  and  washes  up  for 
hours,  and  carries  meals  up  and  down  stairs  in 
her  work,  week  after  week,  and  month  after 
month,  and  year  after  year,  in  our  hospitals, 
knows  what  work  is  now,  and  the  soldier  who  is 
served,  and  the  soldier's  sister  and  wife,  learns 
something,  too,  about  her  that  is  worth  learning. 
We  have  also  learned  a  great  deal  in  our  wel- 
fare work,  and  the  welfare  supervisors  and  the 
workers  both  have  benefited,  and  the  heads  of 
the  innumerable  hostels,  which  we  have  built 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  269 

everywhere  for  our  girls — dozens  in  our  new 
Government-built  munition  cities,  have  been  of 
very  real  help  and  service  to  the  girls.  A  tactful, 
sensible,  educated  woman  has  a  great  deal  to  give 
that  helps  the  younger  girl,  and  can  look  after 
and  advise  her  as  to  health,  work,  leisure  and 
amusements  in  a  way  that  leaves  real  lasting 
benefit. 

In  the  munition  works,  well  educated  women, 
women  with  plenty  of  money,  women  who  never 
worked  before,  work  year  after  year  beside  the 
working  girl.  Just  at  first  some  of  the  working 
girls  were  not  quite  sure  of  her,  but  it  is  all  right 
long,  long  ago,  and  they  mutually  admire  each 
other.  The  well-off  woman  works  her  hours  and 
takes  her  pay,  and  takes  it  very  proudly.  I  have 
been  told  many  times  by  these  women  who,  for 
the  first  time  know  the  joy  of  earning  money, 
"I  never  felt  so  proud  in  my  life  as  when  I  got 
my  first  week's  money."  And  the  men  in  the 
factories  learn  a  lot,  too.  "Women  have  been 
too  much  kept  back,"  was  the  comment  of  a  fore- 
man in  a  shell  factory  to  the  Chief  Woman  Fac- 


270  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

tory  Inspector  on  a  visit  she  was  paying  to  it. 
The  skilled  men,  teaching  the  women,  have 
learned  a  great  deal  about  them,  too,  and  have 
helped  the  women  in  so  many  ways.  Men  have 
been  amazed  at  the  ability  and  power  and  capa- 
city for  work  of  the  women  and  are,  on  the  whole, 
very  willing  to  say  so  and  express  their  admira- 
tion. 

One  munition  girl  writes:  "The  timekeeper, 
quite  a  gorgeous  gentleman  in  uniform,  gave  us 
quite  a  welcome.  .  .  .  The  charge-hand  of  the 
Welder's  shop  helped  us  to  start,  and  stayed  with 
us  most  of  Friday.  He  was  most  kind,  and 
showed  us  the  best  way  to  tackle  each  job,  did 
one  for  us,  and  then  watched  us  doing  it." 

Another  says,  "Our  foreman  is  a  dear  old  man, 
so  kind  and  full  of  fun.  The  men  welders  are 
awfully  good  to  us." 

In  considering  the  practical  facts  of  new 
oppoi  ^unities  for  women,  one  thing  is  clear. 
Masses  of  our  women  took  their  new  work  as 
"temporary  war  jworkers,"  but  as  the  war  has 
gone  on,  it  has  become  clearer  and  clearer  that, 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  271 

in  many  cases,  these  tasks  are  going  to  be  per- 
manently open  to  women.  One  reason  is  that 
many  of  the  men  will  never  return  to  take  up 
their  work  again — another,  that  many  of  them 
will  never  return  to  what  they  did  before. 

They  have  been  living  in  the  open-air,  doing 
such  different  things,  such  big  vistas  have  opened 
out  that  they  will  never  be  content  to  go  back 
to  some  of  their  tasks.  There  is  the  other  fact 
that  we,  like  every  other  country,  will  need  to 
repair  and  renovate  so  much,  will  need  to  create 
new  and  more  industries,  will  need  to  add  to  our 
productiveness  to  pay  off  our  burdens  of  debt, 
and  to  carry  out  our  schemes  of  reconstruction, 
so  women  will  still  be  needed.  Our  women,  in 
still  greater  numbers,  will  not  be  able  to  marry, 
and  the  best  thing  for  any  nation  and  any  set  of 
women  is  to  do  work,  and  there  will  be  plenty  of 
room  for  all  the  work  our  women  can  do.  Many 
will  go  back  to  home  work,  of  course;  there  are 
large  numbers  who  are  working  in  our  country, 
only  while  their  husbands  are  away,  and  when 


272  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

they  return  will  find  their  work  in  their  homes 
again. 

We  are  offering  special  training  opportunities 
to  the  young  widow  of  the  soldier  or  officer. 

In  special  branches  of  work  our  opportunities 
are  very  much  greater  and  better.  Medicine 
is  one  of  the  professions  in  which  women  have 
very  specially  made  good.  Better  training  op- 
portunities have  opened,  more  funds  have  been 
raised  to  enable  women  of  small  means  to  get 
medical  education,  and  the  Queen  herself  gave 
a  portion  of  a  gift  of  money  she  received,  for 
this  purpose.  Most  medical  appointments  are 
open  to  them  now  and  they  have  been  urged  by 
the  great  medical  bodies  to  enter  for  training 
in  still  greater  numbers  in  the  different  Uni- 
versities, and  have  done  so. 

More  research  is  being  done  by  them  in  every 
department.  In  professions  such  as  accountancy, 
architecture,  analytical  chemistry,  more  and 
more  women  are  entering.  In  the  banking  world 
women  have  done  very  satisfactory  work,  and 
one  London  bank  manager,  asked  to  say  what  he 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  273 

thought  of  prospects  after  the  war,  says  he  is 
very  strongly  of  opinion  it  will  continue  to  be 
a  profession  for  women  after  the  war.  This 
manager  thinks  the  question  of  higher  admin- 
istrative posts  being  open  to  women  will  depend 
entirely  on  themselves  and  their  work,  and  what 
they  prove  capable  of  achieving  and  holding,  they 
will  certainly  have. 

In  the  war,  one  profession,  in  particular,  has 
come  nearer  to  finding  its  rightful  place  than 
ever  before — the  teaching  profession.  Their  sal- 
aries which,  in  too  many  cases,  were  disgrace- 
fully low,  have  been  raised.  The  woman  teacher 
has  shown  her  capacity  in  new  fields  of  work  in 
the  boys'  schools,  but  it  is  in  another  sense  that 
their  profession,  both  men  and  women,  but  very 
specially  the  women,  have  achieved  a  very  real 
gain  in  the  war. 

The  teachers  of  the  country  have  done  a  very 
great  deal  of  war  work  of  every  kind.  The  Na- 
tional Register  of  1915  was  largely  done  by  their 
labour.  The  War  Savings  Associations  and  Com- 
mittees owe  a  great  debt  to  teachers  and  inspec- 
18 


274  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

tors,  who  are  the  backbone  of  the  movement, 
headmistresses  are  asked  constantly  to  help  in 
securing  trained  women,  urged  to  work  in  Hos- 
pitals on  their  holidays,  on  land,  in  organizing 
supplies  and  comforts  in  canteens  and  clubs,  and 
more  and  more  are  put  on  official  Committees  in 
their  towns  and  districts. 

It  means  the  teacher  is  finding  the  status  and 
position  the  workers  in  their  profession  ought  to 
have  in  their  communities,  and  the  war  has  done 
a  great  deal  towards  achieving  that  desirable 
end,  though  there  is  still  a  good  deal  to  be  done. 

In  the  Government  Service  there  has  undoubt- 
edly been  great  opportunities  for  women,  espe- 
cially those  of  organizing,  executive  and  secre- 
tarial ability — and  in  many  cases  the  payment  in 
higher  posts  is  identical  for  men  and  women,  and 
higher  posts,  if  they  have  the  ability,  are  freely 
given  to  women  and  the  whole  position  of  women 
in  our  Civil  Service  is  improved.  In  the  very 
highest  posts,  such  as  those  of  Insurance  and 
Feeble-minded  Commissioners,  etc.,  women  before 
the  war  received  the  same  salaries  as  men. 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOB  WOMEN  275 

The  organizing  ability  and  the  common  sense 
way  in  which  our  women  in  voluntary  organiza- 
tion, quite  rapidly,  themselves  decided  what 
organizations  were  unnecessary  and  merely  du- 
plicating others,  and  refused  to  help  them,  so  that 
they  died  out  quite  quickly,  roused  admiration, 
and  the  war  has  educated  vast  numbers  of  women 
in  organization  and  executive  ability.  Women 
who  never  in  their  lives  organized  anything,  and 
never  kept  an  account  properly,  are  doing  all 
kinds  of  useful  work.  One  nice  middle-aged  lady 
whose  War  Savings  Association  accounts  were 
being  kept  wrongly,  or  rather  were  not  really 
being  kept  at  all,  when  told  they  must  be  done 
fully  and  correctly  by  one  of  our  National  Com- 
mittee representatives,  said,  "Oh,  but  you  see, 
I  never  did  anything  but  crochet  before  the  war" ; 
but  we  have  succeeded  in  making  even  the  crochet 
ladies  keep  accounts  and  do  wonderful  things. 

In  the  great  world  of  mechanics  and  engineer- 
ing, women  are  doing  a  wonderful  amount  of 
work  and,  there  is  no  doubt,  will  remain  in  cer- 
tain departments  after  the  war.  One  danger 


276  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

there  is  in  the  women's  attitude — so  many  of  our 
women  have  learned  one  branch  of  work  very 
quickly,  that  there  probably  will  be  a  tendency 
to  believe  that  anything  can  be  learned  as  easily. 
There  are  only  certain  departments  of  mechanics 
that  can  be  learned  in  a  few  months'  time,  and 
women  will  probably  go  on  doing  these.  Such 
work  as  theirs  in  optical  munitions,  has  shown 
their  very  special  aptitude  for  it  and  in  lens- 
making,  etc.,  they  will  be  used  more  and  more. 
Women  have  successfully  done  tool-setting  and 
can  go  on  with  that.  The  training  for  civil  and 
mechanical  engineering  is  long,  but  there  will  be, 
if  women  are  keen  and  will  train,  plenty  of  op- 
portunity for  them  in  peace-time  occupations  in 
civil,  mechanical  or  electrical  branches  in  con- 
nection with  municipal,  sanitary  and  household 
questions  and  in  laundries,  farms,  etc.  The 
women  architects  and  these  women  could  very 
well  co-operate  closely. 

Women  clerks  and  secretaries  will  remain 
largely  after  the  war.  Fewer  men  will  want  these 
posts  as  we  are  convinced  there  will  be  big 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  277 

movements  among  our  men  to  more  active  work, 
to  the  land  and  to  the  Dominions  overseas. 

Women  on  the  land  will  in  numbers  stay  there, 
and  there  is  a  distinct  movement  among  women 
with  capital  to  go  in  for  farming,  market  gar- 
dening, bee-keeping,  poultry-keeping,  etc.,  still 
more. 

The  war  has  made  more  of  our  fathers  and 
mothers  realise  the  i*ight  of  their  daughters  to 
education  and  training,  and  there  are  very  few 
parents  in  our  country  now,  who  thi,  u  girl 
needs  to  know  nothing  very  practical,  and  has  no 
need  to  go  in  for  a  profession.  Our  women's 
colleges  have  more  students  than  ever  and  the 
war  has  done  great  things  in  breaking  down 
these  old  conventional  ideas.  The  war,  in  fact, 
has  shaken  the  very  foundations  of  the  old  Vic- 
torian beliefs  in  the  limited  sphere  of  women  to 
atoms.  Our  sphere  is  now  very  much  more  what 
every  human  being's  sphere  is  and  ought  to  be — 
the  place  and  work  in  which  our  capacity,  ability 
or  genius  finds  its  fullest  vent — and  there  is  no 
need  to  worry  about  restricting  women  or  any- 


278  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

one  else  to  particular  spheres — if  they  cannot 
do  it,  they  cannot  fill  the  sphere,  and  that  test  de- 
cides. The  dear  old  Victorian  dugouts  grow  fewer 
and  fewer  in  number,  but  we  never  must  forget 
that  the  great  powers  of  women  have  not  come  in 
a  night,  miraculously,  in  the  war.  They  are  the 
result  of  long  years  of  patient  work  before,  and 
we  women,  who  have  had  these  great  opportu- 
nities, must  see  to  it  that  we  nobly  carry  on  the 
traditions  of  teaching  and  training  and  qualify- 
ing ourselves  for  service,  bequeathed  to  us  from 
older  generations. 

One  thing,  too,  despite  the  war  tasks  and 
strain,  we  have  not  lost  sight  of  the  fact  that  the 
great  fundamental  tasks  of  keeping  the  house, 
guarding  and  seeing  to  the  children  must  be 
well  done.  Just  for  a  little,  some  of  our  tasks  of 
child  welfare  had  fewer  workers,  but  many  of  the 
women  realized  the  value  of  all  these  tasks  as 
supreme,  and  took  up  the  work  freely.  Child 
welfare  work  in  particular  the  Suffrage  woman 
organized  and  worked,  Glasgow  Suffragists  tak- 
ing on  the  visiting  of  babies,  always  done  there, 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  270 

in  a  whole  ward  of  the  city,  and  in  other  towns 
they  started  Day  Nurseries. 

Lord  Khondda  at  the  Local  Government  Board 
instituted  Baby  week  and  we  hope  to  found  a 
Ministry  of  Health  very  soon.  So  in  the  War  we 
have  realized  even  more  vividly  how  great  and 
valuable  and  important  these  tasks  of  women  are. 
A  very  great  amount  of  work  for  child  welfare 
has  been  done  by  our  women  in  the  war,  and  our 
infant  death  rate  is  going  still  lower. 

The  war  has  done  a  great  service  in  drawing 
women  of  all  the  Allied  Nations  together — a 
service  whose  greatness  and  magnitude  it  is  not 
easy  to  fully  realize.  French  and  English  men 
and  women  know  so  much  more  of  each  other 
now.  Our  hospitals  in  France,  our  Canteens  for 
French  Soldiers,  as  well  as  our  own,  our  women 
and  the  French  women  working  side  by  side  in 
our  army  clerical  departments  and  ordnance 
depots  in  France,  the  Belgians  and  French  who 
are  among  us  in  such  large  numbers,  make  us 
known  to  each  other.  In  Serbia  we  have  made 
many  friends  and  in  Italy  and  Russia  and  Ro- 


280  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

mania,  all  links  for  the  future,  and  helps  to  wider 
knowledge  and  understanding.  It  is  on  under- 
standing the  hopes  of  the  world  rest,  and  we 
women  have  a  great  part  to  play  in  that. 

With  America  our  link  has  always  been  very 
great  and  all  the  help,  and  gifts,  and  service 
America  gave  us  before  it  entered  the  war,  have 
been  very  precious  to  us.  American  women  have 
given  Hospitals  and  ambulances  and  everything 
possible  in  the  way  of  succour  and  of  service, 
and  have  died  with  our  women  in  nursing  ser- 
vice, as  the  men  have  in  our  ranks. 

Massachusetts  sent  a  nurse  to  France,  Miss 
Alice  Fitzgerald,  in  memory  of  Edith  Cavell, 
which  shows  the  unity  of  your  feeling  and  ours 
on  that  tragic  execution,  and  her  work  under 
our  War  Office  in  Queen  Alexandra's  Imperial 
Army  Nursing  Service  with  the  British  Expe- 
ditionary Force,  as  well  as  the  work  of  all  the 
American  nurses  we  have  had  helping  us,  is  an- 
other link  in  the  great  chain.  Our  own  great 
Commonwealth  of  Nations  are  nearer  to  each 
other  than  ever  before.  There  were  even  people 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  281 

among  us  who  thought  a  little  as  the  enemy  did 
that  our  Dominions  would  not  stand  by  us — 
stupid  and  blind  people. 

It  is  their  fight  as  well  as  ours — the  common 
fight  of  all  free  peoples,  and  all  our  united  na- 
tions stand  together,  including  those  who  only 
a  few  years  ago  were  fighting  us  as  brave  foes. 

We  have  learned  so  much  in  great  ways  and  in 
small  ways,  in  economies  and  in  the  care  of  all 
our  resources,  too.  We  women  are  more  careful 
in  Britain  now.  We  save  food,  and  grow  more, 
and  produce  more,  and  maids  and  mistresses 
work  together  to  economize  and  help.  We 
gather  our  waste  paper  and  sell  it  or  give  it  to 
the  Red  Cross  for  their  funds,  give  our  bottles 
and  our  rags,  waste  no  food  and  save  and  lend 
our  money.  We  could  not  have  been  called  a 
thrifty  nation  before  the  war — we  are  much  more 
thrifty  now,  in  many  ways,  though  there  are  still 
things  we  could  learn. 

In  the  Women's  Army  and  in  so  much  of  our 
work  we  are  learning  discipline  and  united  ser- 
vice— learning  what  it  means  to  be  proud  of  your 


282  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

corps  and  to  feel  the  uniform  you  wear  or  the 
badge  is  something  you  must  be  worthy  of — and 
it  goes  back  to  being  worthy  of  your  own  flag 
and  of  the  ideals  for  which  we  all  stand  in  these 
days. 

And  the  young  wives  who  are  married  and  left 
behind,  who  bear  their  children  with  their  hus- 
bands far  away  in  danger,  who  have  had  no  real 
homes  yet,  but  who  wait  and  hope,  they  are  very 
wonderful  in  their  courage  and  pluck — and,  most 
of  all,  everywhere,  our  women,  like  our  men, 
wisely  refuse  to  be  dreary.  There  are  enougli 
secret  dark  hours,  but  in  our  work  we  carry  on 
cheerfully,  the  women  know  the  soldiers-  slogan, 
"Cheero,"  and  to  Britain  and  to  "somewhere  on 
the  fronts,"  the  same  message  goes  and  comes. 

Of  the  great  spiritual  worths  and  values,  it  has 
brought  to  women  very  much  what  it  has  brought 
to  men.  All  eternal  things  are  more  real,  all  eter- 
nal truths  more  clearly  perceived.  When  the 
whole  foundations  of  life  rock  under  us,  in  where 
"there  is  no  change,  neither  shadow  of  turning," 
the  heart  rests  more  surely  in  these  days. 


WHAT  THE  WAR  HAS  DONE  FOR  WOMEN  283 

It  has  brought  us  agonies  and  tears,  weariness 
and  pain,  self-denial  and  great  sorrows,  but  it 
has  brought  such  riches  of  self-sacrifice,  such 
service,  such  love,  has  shown  us  such  peaks  of 
revelation  and  vision  to  which  the  soul  and  the 
nation  can  attain,  that  we  count  ourselves  rich, 
though  so  much  has  gone. 

To  think  of  what  we  might  have  been  if  we  had 
refused  to  bear  our  share — to  look  back  on  the 
evils  of  luxury  and  selfishness  that  were  creeping 
over  us,  makes  us  feel  that  we  may  have  lost 
some  things,  but  "what  shall  it  profit  a  man  if 
he  gain  the  whole  world  and  lose  his  own  soul." 
And  we  have  saved  our  soul.  The  souls  of  the 
nations  travail  in  a  new  birth  through  a  night  of 
agony  and  tears.  The  purposes  being  worked  out 
are  so  great,  that  it  is  difficult  for  us  to  see  them 
with  our  limited  human  vision,  but  in  great  mo- 
ments of  insight  we  do  see,  and  having  seen,  go 
back  to  our  tasks  in  the  light  of  that  vision,  know- 
ing that  though  now  we  fight  in  dim  shadows 
with  monstrous  and  awful  evils  of  mankind's 


284  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

creation,  the  day  is  coming  nearer  and  the  light 
will  come. 

An  age  is  dying  and  a  new  age  comes,  and 
what  it  shall  be  only  the  men  and  women  of  the 
world  can  answer. 


RECONSTRUCTION 

"The  tumult  and  the  shouting  dies — 

The  captains  and  the  kings  depart- 
Still  stands  thine  ancient  sacrifice, 
An  humble  and  a  contrite  heart. 
Lord  God  of  Hosts;  be  with  us  yet, 
Lest  we  forget,  lest  we  forget." 

— EUDYARD  KIPLING. 

"We  shall  not  cease  from  mental  fight, 

Nor  shall  our  sword  sleep  in  our  hand, 
Till  we  have  built  Jerusalem, 

In  England's  green  and  pleasant  land." 

— W.  BLAKE. 


CHAPTER   XIV 

RECONSTRUCTION 

AND  what  is  to  come  after?  The  first  and 
the  last  and  the  greatest  thing  to  do  is  to 
win  the  war  and  to  get  the  right  settlement. 
Unless  we  finish  this  struggle  with  the  nations 
free,  there  can  be  no  real  reconstruction.  The 
greatest  work  of  reconstruction — the  fundamen- 
tal work — will  be  at  the  peace  table.  Those  who 
are  giving  everything  and  doing  everything  to 
gain  victory  for  the  Allies,  are  the  true  recon- 
structors  of  the  world. 

The  first  great  task  of  reconstruction  is  victory 
and  the  second  is  right  peace  settlements. 

We  cannot  say  that  anything  we  can  do  will 
make  future  peace  certain,  but  we  can  see  that 
just  and  righteous  settlements  are  made,  so  that 
the  foundations  are  laid  that  ought  to  ensure 
peace  in  the  future.  There  is  no  real  peace 
possible  while  injustices  exist. 

There  is  no  real  peace  possible  while  evil  and 
good  contend  for  mastery,  and  the  spiritual  con- 


288  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

flicts  of  man  are,  and  will  be,  as  terrible  as  any 
physical  conflicts.  While  mankind  stands  where 
it  does  now,  it  is  well  that  against  corruption  of 
spirit  and  thought,  we  can  use  our  bodies  as 
shields. 

The  fact  that  we  have  had  to  fight  Germany 
physically,  shows  clearly  that  spiritually  and 
mentally  we  were  unable  to  make  them  see  truth 
and  honour,  and  the  meaning  of  freedom,  and 
that  the  ideal  of  peace  made  no  real  appeal  to 
them. 

They  built  up  in  their  nation  great  thought 
forces  of  aggression,  of  belief  in  militarism,  of 
worship  of  might,  of  belief  that  war  paid,  and 
was  in  itself  good,  that  there  was  no  conscience 
higher  than  the  state.  They  even  worship  God 
as  a  sort  of  tribal  God  whom  they  call  upon  to 
work  with  them — not  a  question  as  to  whether 
they  are  on  God's  side — no — an  assertion  that 
God  is  on  theirs. 

That  was  their  thought — and  the  thoughts  of 
the  other  nations  were  bent  on  problems  of  free- 
dom and  growing  democracy,  of  widening  oppor- 
tunities, of  political  and  commercial  interest, 


RECONSTRUCTION  289 

were,  on  the  whole,  the  vaguely  good  thoughts  of 
evolving  democracies  (with  notable  exceptions), 
but  not  the  clear  powerful  thoughts  needed  to 
fight  effectually  those  of  Germany  in  the  fields 
of  intellect  and  spirit. 

People  did  not  see  the  full  evil  of  Germany's 
thought — it  was  tied  up  with  so  much  that  was 
efficient  and  good  and  able,  and  we  were  only 
half  articulate  as  to  our  own  beliefs,  and  not 
even  thoroughly  clear  or  agreed  about  them,  and 
Germany  considered  us  slack  and  inefficient,  and 
believed  we  might  even  be  induced  to  consent  to 
seeing  Europe  overrun  and  doing  nothing.  We 
did  not  believe,  despite  warning,  that  any  nation 
thought  as  Germany  did  and  we  seemed,  in  their 
minds,  to  be  people  to  be  dominated  and  swept 
over. 

One  interesting  fact  to  note  is  that  Germany, 
despite  its  boasted  knowledge  of  psychology,  did 
not  realise  that  England  possesses  a  definite  sub- 
conscious mind  which  always  guides  its  actions. 
The  sub-conscious  mind  of  England  is  a  desire 
for  fair  play,  for  justice,  and  a  very  definite  sense 
of  freedom.  England  is  the  creator  of  self- 

19 


290  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

government  and  its  sub-conscious  mind,  built  np 
for  centuries,  is  a  very  definite  and  real  thing. 

The  sub-conscious  mind  of  Germany,  filled 
with  these  dominating  ideas  of  power  and  Welt- 
macht  and  militarism,  goes  on,  once  set  free,  to 
its  logical  end,  and  it  seems  clearer  and  clearer 
that  there  is  no  real  end  to  this  struggle  till  we 
make  the  mind  and  soul  of  Germany  realize  its 
crimes  and  mistakes,  till  they  are  sane  again 
and  talk  the  A,  B,  C  of  civilization.  The  real 
reconstruction  of  the  world  begins  there. 

That  end  reached  and  settlements  justly  done, 
we  may  consider  schemes  for  a  League  of  Nations 
and  practical  possibilities  of  work  in  interna- 
tional organizations  to  prevent  disputes  leading 
to  war. 

The  work  of  reconstruction  must  be  interna- 
tional, as  well  as  national,  but  the  people  who 
do,  and  will  do,  the  best  international  work  are 
the  people  who  do  the  best  national  work.  The 
individuals  who  are  not  prepared  to  spend  time 
and  service  and  effort  to  make  their  own  country 
better  and  nobler,  are  going  to  do  nothing  for 
internationalism  that  is  worth  doing.  The  heart 


RECONSTRUCTION  291 

that  finds  nothing  to  love  and  work  for  in  its 
neighbour  is  the  heart  that  has  nothing  to  bring 
to  the  whole  world. 

Again,  there  must  be  reparation  by  the  enemy. 
We  cannot  reconstruct  this  world  rightly  if  we 
do  not  enforce  justice.  A  nation  that  has  broken 
every  international  and  human  law  is  a  nation 
that  must  be  made  to  pay  for  its  crimes  as  far 
as  human  justice  can  secure  it. 

Our  six  thousand  murdered  merchant  seamen, 
the  thousands  of  passengers  they  have  killed,  the 
civilians  they  have  bombed,  are  marshalled 
against  them,  and  the  horrors  of  their  frightful- 
ness,  deliberately  planned  and  carried  out 
against  the  peoples  they  have  held  in  bondage, 
their  refusal  to  even  feed  properly  their  pris- 
oners and  captive  people — are  we  to  be  told  to 
reconstruct  a  world  without  reparation  for 
these  and  their  other  crimes? 

We  shall  have  a  reconstructed  world  with 
right  foundations,  only  when  the  nations  know 
that  justice  is  throned  internationally,  and  that 
every  crime  is  to  be  judged  and  punished. 


292  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

There  can  be  no  new  world  without  living 
faith,  without  real  religion.  A  cheap  and  senti- 
mental humanitarism  is  no  substitute  for  real 
faith — philosophies  that  seem  adequate  in  ordi- 
nary times  are  poor  things  when  the  soul  of  man 
stands  stripped  of  all  its  trappings  and  faces 
death  and  suffering  and  watches  agonies.  Then 
the  abiding  eternal  soul  knows  its  own  reality 
and  its  oneness  with  the  Divine  and  eternal,  and 
the  sacrifice  of  Christ  is  a  real  living  thing— 
and  in  the  men's  sacrifice  they  are  very  near 
to  Him. 

So  the  Churches  are  being  tested,  too,  in  this 
great  crisis,  and  in  a  reconstructed  world  we 
shall  want  Churches  that  carry  the  message  of 
Christianity  with  a  clearer  and  firmer  voice,  but 
that  is  the  task  of  all  believers.  We  cannot  cast 
the  duty  of  making  the  Church  a  living  witness 
on  our  priests  alone — it  is  our  work,  and  unless 
our  faith  goes  into  everything  we  do,  it  is  no 
use.  People  who  profess  a  faith,  and  carefully 
shut  it  up  in  a  compartment  of  their  lives,  so 
that  it  has  no  real  connection  with  their  work, 


RECONSTRUCTION  293 

are  worse  than  honest  doubters — because  they 
betray  what  they  profess. 

So  reconstruction  rests  upon  great  spiritual 
tasks  and  values,  and  upon  the  willingness  and 
ability  of  the  nations  to  carry  these  out. 

In  our  country,  our  political  parties  are  going 
to  be  changed  and  reconstructed.  The  Labour 
Party  has  already  made  a  big  appeal  to  "brain 
and  hand  workers,"  and  has  announced  its 
scheme  of  re-organization. 

One  definite  result  of  the  war  in  the  minds  of 
the  people  of  our  country  is  the  definite  mental 
discarding  of  state  socialism  of  the  bureaucratic 
kind  as  a  conceivable  system  of  government.  We 
have  seen  bureaucracy  at  work  to  a  great  extent, 
and  shall  undoubtedly  have  to  continue  control 
in  many  ways  after  peace  comes,  but  we  do  not 
like  it.  Socialism  will  have  to  go  on  to  new 
lines  of  thought  and  development  if  it  wishes  to 
achieve  anything — and  the  most  interesting 
thought  and  schemes  are  on  the  lines  of  Guild 
Socialism. 


294  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

How  the  great  Liberal  and  Unionist  Parties 
will  emerge,  we  cannot  say — but  this  we  know, 
they  will  be  different.  We  have  a  new  electorate, 
more  men  and  the  women,  and  the  opinion  and 
needs  of  the  women  will  undoubtedly  affect  our 
political  reconstruction.  Most  of  us,  in  the  war, 
have  entirely  ceased  to  care  for  party;  even  the 
most  fierce  of  partisans  have  changed,  and  the 
"party  appeal,"  in  itself,  will  be  of  little  account 
in  our  country. 

I  feel  sure  we  shall  scrutinize  measures  and 
men  and  programmes  more  carefully,  and  the 
work  of  educating  our  women  will  be  part  of 
the  women's  great  tasks  in  reconstruction. 

Our  ability  to  reconstruct  and  renew  rests  fun- 
damentally upon  our  financial  condition — even 
the  power  to  make  the  best  peace  terms  rests 
upon  it.  Crippled  countries  cannot  stand  out 
for  the  best  terms,  so  finance  is  all-important. 

The  democratic  nature  of  our  loans  is  all- 
important,  too.  We  have  had  people  suggesting 
that  these  loans  would  be  repudiated — a  sugges- 
tion that  is  not  only  absurd,  but  is  humorous 


RECONSTRUCTION  295 

when  one  realizes  that  about  ten  million  of  our 
people  have  invested  in  them.  To  get  a  House  of 
Commons  elected  that  would  repudiate  these 
loans  would  be  a  difficult  task. 

The  widespread  nature  of  the  loans  is  sound 
for  the  people  and  the  Government,  and  will  help 
us  not  only  to  win  the  war,  but,  what  is  still  more 
important,  "to  win  the  peace."  We  have  in  this 
struggle  paid  more  and  better  wages  to  our  people 
than  ever  before,  conditions  have  been  improved, 
masses  of  our  people  have  led  a  fuller  existence 
than  ever  before.  We  want  to  make  these  and 
still  better  conditions  permanent.  We  cannot 
do  that  by  a  military  victory  only — we  can  only 
do  it  by  finishing  financially  sound,  and  the  man 
or  woman  who  saves  now  and  invests  is  one  of 
our  soundest  reconstructors. 

In  the  readjustments  in  industry  that  must 
come  there  will  be  temporary  displacements,  and 
the  money  invested  will  be  invaluable  to  those 
affected.  In  our  great  task  of  reorganizing  in- 
dustries, of  renovating  and  repairing,  of  building 
up  new  works  and  adding  to  our  productiveness, 


296  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

finance  is  all-important.  We  shall  need  large 
sums  for  the  development  of  our  industry,  for  the 
transferring  of  war  work  back  to  peace  pursuits, 
for  the  opening  up  of  new  industries  and  work, 
for  the  development  of  trade  abroad  and  the  self- 
ish using  up  of  resources  that  could  be  conserved, 
makes  the  work  harder — might  even,  if  extrava- 
gantly large,  cripple  us  seriously  at  the  end  of 
this  struggle. 

The  sacrifices  of  our  men  can  achieve  military 
victory,  but  weakness  and  self-indulgence  at 
home  can  take  the  fruits  of  their  victories  away. 

Those  who  are  working  and  saving  in  our  War 
Savings  Movement  are  so  convinced  of  its  value, 
not  only  to  the  state,  but  to  the  individual,  and 
for  the  character  of.  our  people,  that  they  have 
expressed  the  very  strongest  conviction  that  it 
should  go  on  after  the  War,  and  it  will  probably 
remain  in  our  reconstruction. 

We  have  also  urged  the  wisdom  of  saving  for 
the  children's  education  and  for  dots  for  daugh- 
ters, so  that  our  young  women  may  have  some 
money  in  emergencies,  or  something  of  their  own 


RECONSTRUCTION  297 

on  marriage,  and  both  of    these  are    being  done. 

The  great  problem  of  education  bulks  very 
large  in  our  reconstruction  schemes.  A  new  Edu- 
cation Bill  for  England  and  Wales  has  been  pre- 
pared by  Mr.  Fisher — and  his  appointment  is  in 
itself  a  sign  of  our  new  attitude.  He  is  Minister 
of  Education  and  is  really  an  educationist,  hav- 
ing been  Vice-Chancellor  of  Sheffield  University 
when  given  the  appointment.  His  Bill  puts  an 
end  to  that  stigma  on  English  education,  the 
half-time  system  in  Lancashire,  and  raises  the 
age  for  leaving  school  to  what  it  has  been  in 
Scotland  for  some  years — sixteen  years  of  age. 
It  provides  greater  opportunities  for  secondary 
and  technical  training  and  improves  education 
in  every  way.  Its  passage,  or  the  passage  of  a 
still  better  Bill,  is  essential  for  any  real  work  in 
reconstruction. 

There  are  other  schemes  of  education  being 
planned  and  considered,  and  women  are  working 
with  men  on  the  education  committee  of  the 
Ministry  of  Reconstruction. 


298  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

The  land  question  is  all-important  in  recon- 
struction. We  have  fixed  a  minimum  price  for 
wheat  for  five  years,  as  well  as  minimum  wages 
for  the  labourers  on  land,  men  and  women,  and 
we  have  schemes  and  land  for  the  settlement  of 
soldiers.  It  is  safe  to  predict  that  agriculture 
will  be  better  looked  after  than  it  was  before  the 
war,  and  that  we  have  learned  a  valuable  lesson 
on  food  production,  and  the  value  of  being  more 
self-supporting. 

There  are  people  who  talk  airily  and  foolishly 
of  "revolutions  after  the  war" — of  great  labour 
troubles,  of  exorbitant  and  impossible  demands, 
of  irreconcilable  quarrels.  These  people  are 
themselves  the  creators  and  begettors  of  trouble, 
and  mischievous  in  the  highest  degree.  They 
belong,  though  they  are  much  less  attractive,  to 
the  same  category  as  the  person  who  tells  you 
that  the  moral  regeneration  of  the  world  is 
Doming  from  this  great  war. 

The  "revolutionists"  have  to  learn  that  there 
is  no  need  to  have  any  such  crises  happen,  that 
they  can  only  happen  if  we  are  foolish  beyond 


RECONSTRUCTION  299 

belief  and  conception — for  we  have  learned  in 
this  war  how  great  and  ample  is  the  common 
meeting  ground  of  all  of  us,  how  impossible  it 
is  for  anyone  to  believe  that  we,  who  have  fought 
together,  suffered  and  lost  together,  while  our 
men  have  died  together,  cannot  find  in  consid- 
eration of  claims  enough  common  sense  and 
wisdom  to  prevent  any  such  disaster. 

And  one  wonders  where  the  people  are  going 
to  be  found  who  are  going  to  be  so  unjust  to 
the  workers  as  to  provide  any  reason  for  such 
dangers  to  be  feared,  for  we  know  one  thing  in 
the  war,  that  in  the  trenches,  on  the  sea,  behind 
the  trenches  and  carrying  on  at  home,  the 
workers  have  done  the  greater  part — and  they, 
in  their  turn,  know  all  others  have  borne  their 
share.  Out  of  such  common  knowledge  and  the 
consciousness  that  the  practical  work  of  democ- 
racy is  to  raise  its  people  more  and  more,  we 
shall  have  not  revolution,  but  evolution  of  the 
best  kind.  And  the  moral  regeneration  of  the 
world  will  come  if  we  reconstruct  the  one  thing 
that  matters  most  and  that  is  fundamental  to  all 


300  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

— ourselves — and   it  will  not  come  if    we  do  not. 

When  one  has  said  everything  there  is  to  be 
said  of  schemes  and  hopes  of  reconstruction — 
about  the  schemes  for  better  homes,  and  a  great 
housing  scheme  is  wisely  one  of  the  foundation 
schemes  of  our  reconstruction,  for  which  plans 
are  now  being  prepared,  about  schemes  for  the 
care  of  children,  about  schemes  for  endowment 
of  motherhood,  which  are  exercising  the  minds 
of  many  of  our  women,  you  are  back  again  to 
the  individual.  When  you  think  of  education 
schemes,  and  schemes  for  teaching  national 
service  to  the  young,  of  work  to  teach  care  and 
thrift,  you  are  back  again  to  the  problem  of 
creating  character. 

When  you  go  into  the  great  world  of  industry 
and  its  problems,  of  care  of  the  workers  in  health 
and  sickness,  of  securing  justice  and  full  oppor- 
tunities, of  developing  and  wisely  using  our 
resources,  again  you  return  to  the  individual. 

When  you  want  to  make  the  art  and  beauty  of 
life  accessible  to  all,  you  come  back  to  the  ques- 


RECONSTRUCTION  301 

tion  as  to  the  individual's  desire  for  it  and  ap- 
preciation of  it. 

Schemes  in  theory  may  be  perfect — reconstruc- 
tion may  be  planned  without  a  flaw — but  what 
does  that  help  if  we  as  individuals  are  blind 
and  selfish? 

The  regeneration  of  the  world  cannot  come 
from  the  sacrifice  of  our  men  alone,  or  even  of 
some  of  us  at  home.  The  few  may  save  countries 
and  do  great  things,  but  the  work  of  reconstruc- 
tion rests  on  everybody.  Nations  are  made  up 
of  individuals,  and  a  nation  cannot  hope  for 
moral  and  social  regeneration  except  through 
individual  self-denial,  self-sacrifice  and  service. 

It  is  in  our  own  hearts  and  our  own  minds 
that  the  great  task  of  reconstruction  must  be 
done. 

The  greatest  task  of  reconstruction  for  most 
of  us  is  to  make  all  our  actions  worthy  of  our 
highest  self — to  bring  to  the  problems  that  con- 
front us,  not  one  detached  and  prejudiced  bit  of 
us,  but  the  whole  mind  and  spirit  of  ourselves — 
the  best  of  us  always  in  unity. 


302  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

That  is  life's  greatest  task,  and  calls  for  all 
we  have  to  give,  and  all  we  are.  There  lies  true 
reconstruction  and  the  hope  of  all  the  world. 


APPENDIX 


APPENDIX 

American  Women's  War  Relief  Fund,  123  Vic- 
toria Street,  London,  S.  W.  I. 

Association  of  Infant  Consultation  and  Schools 
for  Mothers,  4  Tavistock  Square,  London, 
W.  C.  I. 

British  Women's  Hospital,  Bond  Street,  London, 
W.  I. 

Glove  Waistcoat  Society,  75  Chancery  Lane, 
E.  C.  4. 

.Ministry  of  Food,  Mrs.  Pember  Reeves,  Mrs.  C.  S. 
Peel,  Grosvenor  House,  W.  I. 

National  Federation  of  Women's  Workers. 
Women's  Trade  Union  League,  34  Mecklenburgh 

Square,  W.  C.  I. 
National  Union  of  Women's  Suffrage  Societies, 

Scottish  Women's  Hospitals,  62  Oxford  Street, 
W.  C.  I. 

20 


306  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

National  Food  Reform  Association,  St.  Stephen's 
House,  Westminster,  S.  W.  I. 

Women's    Interests    Committee,        62    Oxford 

Street,  W.  C.  I. 
National    War    Savings    Committee,    Salisbury 

Square,  E.  C.  4. 
National   Union  of  Women  Workers    (Women 

Patrols),     Parliament     Mansions,     Victoria 

Street,  S.  W.  I. 
Queen    Mary's    Needlework    Guild,    St.    James 

Palace,  S.  W.  I. 
National  Food  Economy  League,  3  Woodstock 

Street,  Oxford  Street,  W.  C.  I. 
Prisoners  of  War,  Help  Committee,  4  Thurloe 

Place,  Brompton  Road,  W. 
Women's    Army    Auxiliary    Corps,    Devonshire 

House,  W.  1. 
Women's  Branch,  Food  Production  Department, 

Board    of    Agriculture,    72    Victoria    Street, 

S.  W.  I. 
Women's  Service  Bureau,  L.  S.  W.  S.,  58  Victoria 

Street,  S.  W.  1. 


APPENDIX  307 

Women's  National  Land  Service  Corps,  50  Upper 

Baker  Street,  W.  1. 
Women    Police    Service,    St.    Stephens    House, 

Westminster,  S.  W.  I. 
Young     Women's     Christian     Association,     25 

George  Street,  Hanover  Square,  W.  1. 
V.  A.   D.,   Lady   Amphtill,  Devonshire   House, 

W.  1. 


MINISTRY  OF  MUNITIONS 


PUBLICATIONS  OF  HEALTH  OF  MUNITION 

WORKERS'  COMMITTEE 

The  following  Memoranda  have  been  prepared 
by  the  Committee  and  issued: 
No.     1 — Sunday  Labour. 
No.     2 — Welfare  Supervision. 
No.     3 — Industrial  Canteens. 
No.     4 — Employment  of  Women. 
No.     5 — Hours  of  Work. 

No.     6 — Canteen  Construction  and  Equipment 
(Appendix  to  No.  3). 


308  WOMEN  AND  WAR  WORK 

No.     7 — Industrial  Fatigue  and  Its  Causes. 
No.     8 — Special  Industrial  Diseases. 

No.  9 — Ventilation  and  Lighting  of  Munition 
Factories  and  Workshops. 

No.  10 — Sickness  and  Injury. 

No.  11 — Investigation  of  Workers'  Food  and 
Suggestions  as  to  Dietary.  ( Report  by 
Leonard  E.  Hill,  F.R.S.) 

No.  12 — Statistical  Information  Concerning 
Output  in  Relation  to  Hours  of 
Work.  (Report  by  H.  M.  Vernon, 
M.D.) 

No.  13 — Juvenile  Employment. 

No.  14 — Washing  Facilities  and  Baths. 

No.  15 — The  Effect  of  Industrial  Conditions 
Upon  Eyesight. 

No.  16 — Medical  Certificates  for  Munition 
Workers. 

also,  Feeding  the  Munition  Worker. 

Published  by  H.  M.  STATIONERY  OFFICE, 
London,  W.  C. 


V/'OU  have  read  this  book  and  you 
will  agree  with  the  Publisher 
that  it  ought  to  have  an  immediate 
and  wide  distribution.  Will  you  help 
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by  sending  the  post  card  enclosed, 
giving  your  opinion  of  the  book  to 
one  of  your  friends 


OINCE  you  have  probably  seen  the 
^  imprint  of  G.  Arnold  Shaw  on  a 
book  for  the  first  time,  will  you  spend 
a  few  minutes  scanning  the  following 
pages,  to  discover  what  the  best  criti- 
cal opinion  is  upon  other  recent  Shaw 
publications.  They  are  intended  for 
'the  discriminating  few  as  our  trade- 
mark, "Aere  Perennius" — "more  last- 
ing than  brass,"  indicates. 


Books  by  Members  of  the 
University  Lecturers  Association 


A  significant  proof  of  the  growth  of  the  Association's 
influence  in  recent  yeara  is  afforded  by  the  fact  that  our 
Secretary,  Mr.  G.  Arnold  Shaw,  has  been  enabled  to  enter 
the  publishing  field  successfully.  We  reverse  thus  the  plan 
of  campaign  of  the  ordinary  lecture  bureau  which  is  usually 
impressed  with  the  possibilities  of  a  man  who  has  won  fame 
as  an  author  rather  than  as  a  lecturer;  we  discover  that  a 
man  is  a  first  rate  lecturer  and  then  we  proceed  to  make  him 
an  author — also  of  the  front  rank  as  the  reviews  quoted 
below  show. 


ART  AND  ARCHITECTURE 

By  IAN  C.  HANNAH,  F.S.A. 

Some  Irish  Religious  Houses 50 

Irish    Cathedrals 50 

By  I.  B,  STOUGHTON  HOLBORN 

The  Need  for  Art  in  Life.    (Third  Thousand)      .      .      .75 
"One    of    the    greatest    little    books    of    the    Age." 

— Boston  Transcript. 
Architectures   of  European  Religions,   Illustrated     .   2.00 

AUTOBIOGRAPHY 

The  interest  of  these  books  depend  not  merely  upon  the 
interesting  personality  of  the  famous  lecturer  and  the  equally 
fascinating  personalities  of  his  two  brothers,  but  also  on  the 
exquisite  literary  style  to  which  the  critics  have  paid  such 
eloquent  testimony. 

By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS  AND  LLEWELLYN  POWYS 
Confessions   of   Two    Brothers 1.50 

By  THEODORE  FRANCIS  POWYS 

The  Soliloquy  of  a  Hermit 1.00 

This  book  can  be  compared  to  Amiel's  Journal  in  the 
opinion  of  a  prominent  London  publisher. 

II 


ESSAYS  AND  CRITICISM 

The  essays  contained  in  the  following  books  deal  with  the 
best  lecture  subjects  of  our  various  members;  they  are  spe- 
cially recommended  to  those  who  wish  to  pursue  further  the 
•tudy  outlined  in  our  lecture  courses. 

By  I.  B.  STOUGHTON  HOLBORN 

The  Need  for  Art  in  Life 75 

"The  thoughtful  man  who  reads  it  will  feel  that  a  new 
classic  has  been  added  to  the  world's  literature." — 
Boston  Transcript. 

By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

Visions  and  Revisions,  A  Book  of  Literary  Devotions  2.00 

"Seventeen  essays  remarkable  for  the  omission  of  all 
that  is  tedious  and  cumbersome  in  literary  appre- 
ciations."— Review  of  Reviews. 

Suspended   Judgments,    Essays   on    Books    and    Sen- 
sations         2.00 

"Anything  written  by  John  Cowper  Powys  is  arrest- 
ing and  thrilling.  This  is  superlatively  true  of  his 
essays  in  literary  criticism." — Cincinnati  Enquirer. 

"A  book  of  infinite  delight  to  the  book  lover,  for  few 
present  day  writers  have  the  ability  in  the  same 
measure  as  Mr.  Powys  to  express  every  shade  of 
impression  and  sensation,  and  his  ripe  judgment 
will  appeal  to  all." — Boston  Globe. 

One  Hundred  Best  Books,  with  commentary  and  an 

essay  on  Books  and  Reading 75 

"Of  each  of  the  hundred  books  he  gives  a  brief, 
sparkling,  thoroughly  informative  and  delightfully 
interesting  critical  view.  If  book  reviewers  could 
do  the  job  as  well  as  Mr.  Powys,  the  book  pages 
would  be  the  most  popular  part  of  a  newspaper." 

— Evening  Telegram,  Philadelphia. 

•-'-'  HI 


FICTION 

Critics  of  literature  seldom  succeed  as  creative  artists  and 
so  it  is  specially  remarkable  that  the  highest  authorities  give 
even  more  unqualified  praise  to  the  fiction  of  our  members 
than  to  their  essays.  We  need  not  emphasize  further  our  lack 
of  appreciation  for  the  literary  value  of  "best-sellers";  our 
aim  has  not  been  to  produce  topical  tracts  for  the  times  but 
novels  that  will  survive.  It  is  more  to  us  that  competent 
critics  should  compare  Mr.  Powys*  fiction  to  that  of  Hardy, 
Dostoievsky  and  Emily  Bronte  than  that  the  public  should 
buy  it  by  the  hundred  thousand.  Those  who  are  not  con- 
vinced that  "you  can  place  'Wood  and  Stone*  unhesitatingly 
at  the  side  of  Dostoievsky's  masterpieces"  should  reflect  that 
this  is  not  the  over-enthusiasm  of  "America's  newest  Pub- 
lisher" but  the  verdict  of  a  London  publisher  who  has  long 
held  a  pre-eminent  position;  it  is  therefore  peculiarly  satis- 
factory to  point  out  that  our  first  novel  "Wood  and  Stone" 


PUBLISHED  UNDER  THE  IMPRINT  OF 
WILLIAM  HEINEMANN  G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 


IN  LONDON 


IN  NEW  YORK 


IV 


FICTION 

By  IAN  CAMPBELL  HANNAH 

Quaker-Bom,  A  Romance  of  the  Great  War    .      .      .   1.35 

By  I.  B.  STOUGHTON  HOLBORN 

The  Child  of  the  Moat,  A  story  of  I  557  for  girl*   .      .    1.25 

"Of  such  absorbing  interest  and  literary  merit  that  it 
will  doubtless  take  its  place  among  the  classics." — 
Art  and  Archaeology. 

By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

Wood    and   Stone,    A    Romance    reminiscent    of    the 

great    Dostoievsky         1.75 

"One  of  the  best  novels  of  the  year." — Evening  Post, 
New  York. 

"His  mastery  of  language,  his  knowledge  of  human 
impulses,  his  interpretation  of  the  forces  of  nature 
and  of  the  power  of  inanimate  objects  over  human 
beings,  all  pronounce  him  a  writer  of  no  mean 
rank.  He  can  express  philosophy  in  terms  of  nar- 
rative without  prostituting  his  art;  he  can  suggest 
an  answer  without  drawing  a  moral;  with  a  clearer 
vision  he  could  stand  among  the  masters  in  literary 
achievement." — Boston  Transcript. 

"Psychologically  speaking,  it  is  one  of  the  most  re- 
markable pieces  of  fiction  ever  written." — Chicago 
Tribune. 

Rodmoor,  A  Romance  of  the  old  Thrilling  Romantic 

Order         1.50 

"It  is  so  far  above  the  average  English  and  American 
fiction  that  one  can  well  exempt  it  from  the  neces- 
sity of  following  the  rules.  He  has  intellect,  he  has 
taste,  he  has  a  sure  instinct  for  what  is  aesthetically 
fine.  These  qualities  in  themselves  make  his  'Rod- 
moor*  a  novel  of  exceptional  distinction." — Boston 
Transcript. 

"Without  exception  the  most  exquisitely  written 
novel  of  the  year." — Atlantic  Monthly. 


HISTORY  AND  TRAVEL 

By  IAN  CAMPBELL  HANNAH,  M.A.,  D.C.L.,  F.S.A. 

Eastern  Asia,  A  history 2.50 

Capitals  of  the  Northlands,  A  Tale  of  ten  cities      .      .  2.00 

The  Heart  of  East  Anglia  (A  History  of  Norwich)     .  2.00 

The  Berwick  and  Lothian  Coast         2.00 

POETRY 

By  I.  B.  STOUGHTON  HOLBORN 

Children  of  Fancy 2.00 

"A  Notable  volume  of  Verse." — Boston  Globe. 

By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

WolPs-bane 1.25 

"We  hesitate  to  say  how  many  years  it  is  neces- 
sary to  go  back  in  order  to  find  their  equals  in 
sheer  poetic  originality." — Evening  Post,  New 
York. 

Mandragora  1.25 

THE  WAR 

By  IAN  CAMPBELL  HANNAH 

Arms  and  the  Map 1.25 

By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

The  War  and  Culture 60 

"More  weighty  than  many  of  the  more  pretentious 
treatises  on  the  subject." — The  Nation. 

Any  of  the  above  books  sent  post-free  on  receipt  of  price  by 


G.ARNOLD  SHAW 


PUBLISHER 


VI 


Recommended  by  the  A.  L.  A.  Booklist 

Adopted  for  required  reading  by  the  Pittsburgh 
Teachers  Reading  Circle 

VISIONS  AND  REVISIONS 

A  BOOK  OF  LITERARY  DEVOTIONS 
By  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

8vo,  298  pp.  Half  White  Cloth  with  Blue  Fabriano  Paper  Sides, 

$2.00  net 

This  volume  of  essays  on  Great  Writers  by  the  well-known 
lecturer  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  three  books  with  the  same 
purpose  as  the  author's  brilliant  lectures;  namely,  to  enable  one 
to  discriminate  between  the  great  and  the  mediocre  in  ancient 
and  modern  literature :  the  other  two  books  being  "  One  Hundred 
Best  Books  "  and  "  Suspended  Judgments." 

Within  a  year  of  its  publication,  four  editions  of  "Visions 
and  Revisions"  were  printed  —  an  extraordinary  record  con- 
sidering that  it  was  only  the  second  book  issued  by  a  new  pub- 
lisher. The  value  of  the  book  to  the  student  and  its  interest 
for  the  general  reader  are  guaranteed  by  the  international  fame 
of  the  author  as  an  interpreter  of  great  literature  and  by  the 
enthusiastic  reviews  it  received  from  the  American  Press. 

Review  of  Reviews,  New  York :  "  Seventeen  essays  .  .  .  remarkable 
for  the  omission  of  all  that  is  tedious  and  cumbersome  in  literary  ap- 
preciations, such  as  pedantry,  muckraking,  theorizing,  and,  in  particular, 
constructive  criticism." 

Book  News  Monthly,  Philadelphia :  ' '  Not  one  line  in  the  entire  book 
that  is  not  tense  with  thought  and  feeling.  With  all  readers  who  crave 
dental  stimulation  .  .  .  '  Visions  and  Revisions  '  is  sure  of  a  great  and 
enthusiastic  appreciation." 

The  Nation  and  the  Evening  Post,  New  York :  ' '  Their  imagery  is 
bright,  clear  and  frequently  picturesque.  The  rhythm  falls  with  a  pleas- 
ing cadence  on  the  ear." 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle:  "A  volume  of  singularly  acute  and  readable 
literary  criticism." 

Chicago  Herald:  "  An  essayist  at  once  scholarly,  human  and  charm- 
ing is  John  Cowper  Powys.  .  .  .  Almost  every  page  carries  some  arresting 
thought,  quaintly  appealing  phrase,  or  picture  spelling  passage." 

Reedy's  Mirror,  St.  Louis:  "  Powys  keeps  you  wide  awake  in  the 
reading  because  he's  thinking  and  writing  from  the  standpoint  of  life, 
not  of  theory  or  system.  Powys  has  a  system  but  it  is  hardly  a  system. 
It  is  a  sort  of  surrender  to  the  revelation  each  writer  has  to  make." 

Kansas  City  Star:  "John  Cowper  Powys'  essays  are  wonderfully  il- 
luminating. .  .  .  Mr.  Powys  writes  in  at  least  a  semblance  of  the  Grand 

"Visions  and  Revisions"  contains  the  following  essays:  — 

Rabelais  Dickens  Thomas  Hardy 

Dante  Goethe  Walter  Pater 

Shakespeare  Matthew  Arnold  Dostoievsky 

El  Greco  Shelley  Edgar  Allan  Poe 

Milton  Keats  Walt  Whitman 

Charles  Lamb  Nietzsche  Conclusion 

G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 

GRAND  CENTRAL  TERMINAL        NEW  YORK 

VII 


SUSPENDED    JUDGMENTS 

ESSAYS  ON  BOOKS  AND  SENSATIONS 

BY  JOHN  COWPER  POWYS 

8vo.  about  400  pages.    Half  cloth  with  blue  Fabriano  paper 

sides    $2.00  net 

The  Book  News  Monthly  said  of  "Visions  and  Revisions": 

"  Not  one  line  in  the  entire  book  that  is  not  tense  with  thought 
and  feeling." 

The  author  of  "  Visions  and  Revisions  "  says  of  this  new  book 
of  essays : 

"  In  '  Suspended  Judgments '  I  have  sought  to  express  with 
more  deliberation  and  in  a  less  spasmodic  manner  than  in  'Vi- 
sions/ the  various  after-thoughts  and  reactions  both  intellectual 
and  sensational  which  have  been  produced  in  me,  in  recent 
years,  by  the  re-reading  of  my  favorite  writers.  I  have  tried 
to  capture  what  might  be  called  the  '  psychic  residuum '  of  earlier 
fleeting  impressions  and  I  have  tried  to  turn  this  emotional  after- 
math into  a  permanent  contribution  —  at  any  rate  for  those  of 
similar  temperament  —  to  the  psychology  of  literary  apprecia- 
tion. 

"  To  the  purely  critical  essays  in  this  volume  I  have  added  a 
certain  number  of  others  dealing  with  what,  in  popular  parlance, 
are  called  'general  topics/  but  what  in  reality  are  always  —  in 
the  most  extreme  sense  of  that  word  —  personal  to  the  mind 
reacting  from  them.  I  have  called  the  book  '  Suspended  Judg- 
ments '  because  while  one  lives,  one  grows,  and  while  one  grows, 
one  waits  and  expects/' 

SUSPENDED  JUDGMENTS  CONTAINS  THESE  ESSAYS: 

THE  ART  OF  DISCRIMINATION  IN  LITERATURE 

MONTAIGNE  EMILY  BRONTE 

PASCAL  JOSEPH  CONRAD 

VOLTAIRE  HENRY  JAMES 

ROUSSEAU  OSCAR  WILDE 

BALZAC  AUBREY  BEARDSLEY 
VICTOR  HUGO 

DE  MAUPASSANT  FRIENDS 

ANATOLE  FRANCE  RELIGION 

PAUL  VERLAINE  LOVE 

REMY  DE  GOURMONT  CITIES 

WILLIAM  BLAKE  MORALITY 

BYRON  EDUCATION 

G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 

GRAND  CENTRAL  TERMINAL  NEW  YORK 

VIII 


Recommended  by  the  A.  L.  A.  Booklist 
Specially  suitable  for  Schools  and  Colleges 

ARMS  AND  THE  MAP 

A  STUDY  IN  NATIONALITIES  AND  FRONTIERS 
By  IAN  CAMPBELL  HANNAH,  M.A.,  D.C.L. 

ismo,  256  pages,  $1.25  net 

This  work,  which  has  had  a  large  sale  in  England,  will  be  in- 
valuable when  the  terms  of  peace  begin  to  be  seriously  dis- 
cussed. Every  European  people  is  reviewed  and  the  evolution 
of  the  different  nationalities  is  carefully  explained.  Particular 
reference  is  made  to  the  so-called  "  Irredentist "  lands,  whose 
people  want  to  be  under  a  different  flag  from  that  under  which 
they  live. 

The  colonizing  methods  of  all  the  nations  are  dealt  with,  and 
especially  the  place  in  the  sun  that  Germany  hasn't  got. 

New  York  Timei  says:  "  Such  a  volume  as  this  will  undoubtedly  be 
of  value  in  presenting  .  .  .  facts  of  great  importance  in  a  brief  and  in- 
teresting fashion." 

Brooklyn  Daily  Eagle  says:  "It  is  hard  to  find  a  man  who  presents 
his  arguments  so  broad-mindedly  as  Dr.  Hannah.  His  spirit  is  that  of  a 
catholic  scholar  striving  earnestly  to  find  the  truth  and  present  it 
sympathetically." 

Philadelphia  North  American  says:  "It  is  in  no  sense  history,  but 
rather  a  preparatory  effort  to  mark  broadly  the  outlines  of  any  future 

Scace  settlement  that  would  have  even  a  fighliiig  chance  of  permanency, 
uly  in  perusing  a  critical  study  of  this  character  can  the  vast  problems 
of  post-bellum  imminence  be  fully  apprehended." 

Philadelphia  Press  says:  "  His  work  is  immensely  readable  and  par- 
ticularly interesting  at  this  time  and  will  throw  much  fresh  light  on  the 
situation." 

OTHER  BOOKS  BY  IAN  C  HANNAH 

Eastern  Asia,  A  History   $2.50 

Capitals  of  the  Northlands  (A  tale  of  ten  cities)   2.00 

The  Berwick  and  Lothian  Coast  (in  the  County  Coast  Series)    2.00 

The  Heart  of  East  Anglia  (A  History  of  Norwich) 2.00 

Some  Irish  Religious  Houses  (Reprinted  from  the  Arch&- 

ological  Journal)    5°c 

Irish  Cathedrals  (Reprinted  from  the  Arch&ological  Journal     soc 

G.  ARNOLD  SHAW 

GRAND  CENTRAL  TERMINAL         NEW  YORK 

IX 


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DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 

BEL  Cm  WJb 

)        OO 

KB.G«.>W02'80 

DtC  1  3  1984 

MAR  13  1991 

JAM  1  fi  7(inp 

RECEIVED  BY 

AUT9  DISC  FEB  1  3  '91 

Opn  13  1984 

wny  2  fi  1QQ3 

CIRCULATION  DEF 

tfrmr  mi  ?x  '93 

MAY    11987 

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UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA,  BERKELEY 
FORM  NO.  DD6,  60m,  12/80        BERKELEY  CA  94720 

®s 


YB  21273 

GENERAL  LIBRARY  -  U.C.  BERKELEY 


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